Jonathan Freedland is clearly correct when he says that Donald Trump is turning the US into a mafia state (Journal, 7 March), but perhaps we should consider that the potential to do so was always present.
The concept of “America First” indicated that the US intended the world to understand not just that it would put its interests ahead of others, but that there was, and should be, a global acceptance that it was the only real superpower – and that it held a moral right to that position. Trump’s ravings can be seen as a response to discovering that this was never true. The truth is that other western countries have foolishly, and needlessly, supported the US in this delusion. Now we all have to pay the price.
