Letters: Donald Trump’s messiah complex

He’s not the messiah

Sir: To Freddy Gray’s meticulous dissection of Trumpian chaos theory (‘Shock tactics’, 12 April) I would add one element: religion. Donald Trump seems to believe the blood he spilt in the failed assassination attempt anointed him his country’s Redeemer: ‘I was saved by God to make America great again.’ Messiahs look to a higher authority than rational argument. Whatever ideas pop into the President’s head he judges right by definition. Tariffs will achieve miracles and wars will cease at his command. There is a strong Gnostic element to this cult, its followers believing Trump has some secret knowledge guiding his apparently wayward actions. To keep him in check, the rest of us will have to put our trust in the bond markets.

Francis Bown

London E3

Botched job

Sir: Andrew Lewis’s article on jobseeking hit home for me (‘Role play’, 12 April). I was made redundant in 2010 at the age of 57. During my career I had been exposed multiple times to the tender mercies of the border forces of the USA, Russia and China; however, I have never been handled so rudely as I was at the Jobcentre in Bromley. If you arrived minutes early for your appointment, you were made to stand out in the rain or snow. If I read job adverts in my newspaper while waiting, I was told off and informed I could only use their job adverts kiosk. Their kiosk was pretty useless; you selected the postcode areas of interest, so I went for CR (Croydon) and BR (Bromley). Unfortunately, whoever loaded the jobs thought BR was Bristol (BS), so I got all the Bristol jobs, and no one knew how to correct it. I was offered a CV-writing course and, as I’d not had a job interview since 1984, I accepted. When attending I was told this was the last month the course would be offered, due to cutbacks.