# The world must learn to take Donald Trump literally

## Letters

In his reckoning, there are not so much as sovereign states, but properties with tenants that can purchased.

### Dr George Hudson
Worcester

You ask if Donald Trump is “friend or foe?” (News). The answer is that if it is understood how Trump perceives himself, the US and others in the world, then there is a consistency about his utterances and policies.

He sees himself as global deal-maker and, in effect, a replacement for the United Nations. The statements he has made, and continues to make, about Gaza, Greenland, Panama and Canada should be taken literally. In Trump’s reckoning of the order of the world there are not so much as sovereign states, nations with economies and citizens, but properties with tenants that can be purchased – or, in the case of Gaza, tenants who can be “asked” to leave. In the case of Ukraine, he deals with the significant other potential property dealer, Russia, and that explains his treatment of .

### Sir Max Hill KC, former Director of Public Prosecutions; Dame Alison Saunders, former Director of Public Prosecutions; Lord Ken Macdonald KC, former Director of Public Prosecutions; Lord Charles Falconer KC, Former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice; Lord David Pannick KC, Blackstone Chambers; Professor Emily Jackson, Professor of Law, London School of Economics; Professor Colin Gavaghan, Professor at the School of Law, University of Bristol; Professor Philippe Sands KC, Faculty of Laws, UCL and 11 King’s Bench Walk; Professor Hazel Biggs, Professor Emeritus, University of Southampton; Dr Nick Cartwright, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of Leeds; Tim Owen KC, Matrix Chambers; Stephen Cragg KC, Doughty Street Chambers; Michael Mansfield KC, Nexus Chambers; Joe Middleton KC, Doughty Street Chambers; David Wolfe KC, Matrix Chambers; Rebecca Hill, 5SAH Chambers; Maria Scotland, 5SAH Chambers; Louisa Collins, 5SAH Chambers; Saoirse Townshend, Temple Garden Chambers; Chris Bishop, Senior Partner, Slater Heelis; Rachel Fletcher, Partner, Slater Heelis; Richard Stein, Retired, Former Partner, Leigh Day; Yogi Amin, Solicitor; Martin Rackstraw, Solicitor and Oliver Studdert, Solicitor; Professor Laura Hoyano, Professor of Law, University of Oxford and Red Lion Chambers; Tony Vaughan, Doughty Street Chambers and MP for Folkestone and Hythe; Andrea Coomber KC (Hon).

### Long Covid’s curse

Thank you for your long Covid story (“”, Comment).

But please don’t pit the needs of people in poverty overseas against those of people in poverty in this country by suggesting that we could be less generous towards social security spending.

Social security has suffered massive cuts over the past decade and this has been a prime factor in the increase in and deepening of poverty. Rawnsley rightly concludes that we are an affluent country that can afford to wield both hard and soft power. We can also afford to provide a decent social security system. If the French government can be considering taxing the wealthy more in the face of current security demands, why can’t we?

### Not so beautiful

I cannot be the only reader of last week’s Sport section to be struck by the irony of your front-page image of the head-kick suffered by Jean-Phillipe Mateta and the page six headline, above a sympathetic , “I can be more brutal, more nasty and more aggressive – you need that”. Whatever happened to the beautiful game?

### Rhythm and no blues

Amen to  saying, “It is possible, with the right education and tools, to avoid pregnancy without hormonal birth control”. Scientific knowledge and clear teaching has moved natural methods on by many decades from that approach which did require luck, and for nearly 50 years natural family planning has been available, albeit small scale.

Sadly, many of the apps are not trustworthy or educational, but some are and along with initially being taught by a human being, fertility opens up to women, giving us options to choose, while not affecting our bodies.

### Unwelcome US visitor (8)

In an age when children are increasingly using American words such as diapers, garbage or cellphones, it was disappointing to see the word airplane as part of a clue in the . Please do your best to keep our beautiful language English.

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