Letters to the editor

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In support of Mr Trump

The Economist’s take on Donald Trump in its endorsement of Kamala Harris was a hatchet job (“What could possibly go wrong?”, November 2nd). You recounted several noteworthy achievements of Mr Trump’s first presidency, including his management of the economy, awakening the free world to the dangers of China and funding a covid-19 vaccine. Any issues you raised were matters of differences in policy, and not, in fact, the risk that you say Mr Trump represents.

For example, it is fatuous to suggest that Mr Trump presents an exceptional risk of getting America and its allies into a war. There was relative peace during Mr Trump’s first term. It was Joe Biden who so mismanaged foreign policy that he made a shambles of getting out of Afghanistan, which probably emboldened Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine, Iran to encourage Hamas and China to engage in psychological warfare against Taiwan and other countries in Asia.

You then described Mr Trump’s proposals on the economy as inflationary and fiscally unsound, when in fairness, most experts point out that the few solid proposals put forward by Ms Harris were also inflationary and fiscally unsound. How could you make such a distinction when both suffered from the same risks? The thumb was clearly on the scale here.

Finally, you seem to view Mr Trump’s rantings as if they are policy objectives, when we should take them for what they are: hyperbole.

Jack Fornaciari
Washington, DC

You referred to Ms Harris as an “underwhelming machine politician”. What was the basis for such a slur? America has seen many machine politicians, some honourable (Harry Truman), some not so much (“Boss” Tweed), and some somewhere in between (Richard J. Daley). Ms Harris largely made her own way from prosecutor to California’s attorney-general, the Senate, the vice-presidency and eventual nominee for the presidency. What is “underwhelming” about that?

C. Earl Edmondson
Davidson, North Carolina

Although you endorsed Ms Harris you put Mr Trump’s picture on the cover. Probably more people saw that cover on newsstands than read the endorsement. The Economist’s logo coupled with Mr Trump’s glistening smile suggests to many that you had endorsed him and not her. Were you hedging your bets?

Ed Ferrell
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

John Grisham basically summed up this election in the “The Pelican Brief”, written in 1992: “The Democrats had no visible candidate out there making noise. He was strong and getting stronger. Americans were tired of dope and crime, and noisy minorities getting all the attention, and liberal idiots interpreting the constitution in favour of criminals and radicals. This was his moment.”

Andrew Gross
Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Tackling obesity

“The everything drugs” (October 26th) painted an almost utopian vision of new GLP-1 receptor agonists. Medications like Ozempic are making waves in the treatment of obesity, diabetes and other conditions, but in medicine there’s rarely a magic bullet. Obesity is not just about shedding pounds. Diet, genetics, environment, behaviour and mental health all play roles and these drugs don’t address these long-term root causes. And lifestyle changes are important. We’ve seen this with conditions like hypertension and type-2 diabetes. Patients start to rely on medication while diet, exercise and other changes take a back seat.

Sticking to a treatment plan, especially one with side-effects like nausea or pancreatitis, is challenging. I’ve had patients who start GLP-1 drugs with high hopes, only to stop because of the side-effects or the high cost; $500 a month for some. For these drugs to make a real impact, people need to stay on them long term, but that’s not always realistic. The conversation about sustainability is missing.

And even the most promising medications can come with unforeseen risks, as with fen-phen in the 1990s. Doctors initially hailed fen-phen as a miracle weight-loss drug, but severe, life-threatening side-effects, including heart valve damage and pulmonary hypertension, were soon apparent. Despite its initial promise, the drug was pulled from the market after numerous deaths and adverse events. Today’s GLP-1 drugs are not comparable to fen-phen in mechanism, but this history reminds us that no drug is without risk. Over-relying on medication can lead to dangerous consequences.

Dr Stewart Lonky
Los Angeles

Ethiopia’s peace deal

You described the peace agreement signed by Ethiopia’s government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front in 2022 as “The not-quite-peace deal” (November 2nd). Your claim that Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister, initiated a military campaign to overthrow the TPLF is a misrepresentation of the character of the conflict in the Tigray region. The Pretoria Agreement helped end the conflict in Tigray, but there have been difficulties with its implementation. The conflict within the TPLF leadership has been a significant obstacle to its effective execution.

The government of Ethiopia is fully committed to adhering to the letter and spirit of the peace deal. Since the deal was signed the Ethiopian government has been actively working to ensure accountability and provide victims with redress through national mechanisms. Among these are the adoption of a transitional justice policy and the creation of a National Dialogue Commission.

Addressing the historical injustice that denied Ethiopia access to the sea is another aspect of this broader endeavour. Ethiopia, a large landlocked country, cannot sustain its economic growth and maintain durable peace without dependable sea access, which has an impact on the stability of the whole region. Ethiopia wants to collaborate closely with its neighbours to establish a win-win approach to achieve this goal and establish an environment of encouragement for growth and a better future for the generations to come.

All misunderstandings do not necessarily lead to war, and predicting regional conflicts based on this presumption is not only erroneous but also insidious.

Biruk Mekonnen Demissie
Ambassador of Ethiopia
London

Helping to cope with a death

Regarding what to read about grief and bereavement (The Economist reads, October 19th), I find great comfort in creating obituaries and biographies in memorials for my deceased relatives on the website findagrave.com. I can write about what their lives were like and what was important to them. I put my great-great-grandfather’s civil-war diary into his entry. Each person can be linked to parents and siblings and generations before.

Karen Nilsen
Warminster, Pennsylvania

International opinion

Congratulations on the launch of your Telegram column on world affairs (November 2nd). The inaugural column was excellent and perceptive, but it omitted one important difference between the cold war and today’s geopolitical rivalries. In the old days the West had politicians, diplomats and military leaders of the calibre of Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower to turn George Kennan’s analysis of containment into actual policies. In today’s more complex world, such people are sadly missing.

Avinash Dixit
Princeton, New Jersey

I expect Telegram will be rich and insightful. To ensure this is so, I remind you of the advice that Marshall gave to Kennan in 1947, when he asked him to organise and head the State Department’s new policy-planning staff: “Avoid trivia.”

Robert Haffa
Naples, Florida

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