Sir, – Letter-writers (January 18th) omit the whole picture in relation to the presidents they compare with Donald Trump. Lincoln in 1860 faced three other candidates who each secured over 10 per cent of the popular vote. Nixon in 1968 was opposed by not just Hubert Humphrey but also George Wallace, who took 13.5 per cent of the vote. Bill Clinton in 1992 defeated George HW Bush and Ross Perot, who received 18.9 per cent. In all three cases the successful candidate received a greater share of the popular vote than each of the other candidates. That is not true of Donald Trump, whose popular vote was over two million below that for Hillary Clinton. – Yours, etc,
BILL REDMOND,
Cardiff.
Sir, – Part of the reason for both the Brexit result and the election of Donald Trump seems to me to be nostalgia. A nostalgia for a time when many people really believe things were better, safer, friendlier, more prosperous, etc. When summers were sunnier, when families were happier. The past for many is the span of time that they can remember or they heard about from the generation before them. The older we get the longer our past becomes and we can have rose-tinted memories. Neither Brexit nor Trump will ever be able to recreate the past that so many seem to hanker after. – Yours, etc,
ANNE MARIE MORAN,
Raheny,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – Could a mere 140 characters cause Armageddon? – Yours, etc,
GERRY O’DONNELL,
Dublin 15.
Sir, – Orange man in the White House? Well how could anyone have predicted it? – Yours, etc,
IAN KAVANAGH,
Kilmainham,
Dublin 8.