Mar 2, 2018 2 min read

I was amazed to see that the “Trump derangement syndrome” is alive and well with at least some of your readers. In his recent letter to the editor, Harry Hull indicates that since Special Counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals for allegedly conspiring to create confusion in the 2016 presidential election, this somehow must prove President Trump was guilty of it also. Mr. Hull somehow fails to see that the special counsel’s team made it clear that the Russians neither colluded with any U.S. citizen nor had any material effect on the election’s outcome. That Trump was one of the targets of the comedically inept Russian efforts to disrupt the election seems to make no difference to Mr. Hull.

The Russian meddling began in 2014, well before Trump’s campaign began. According to the deputy attorney general, the Russians promoted Sen. Bernie Sanders’s Democratic primary bid and Green Party nominee Jill Stein’s general-election effort. After Trump won, the Russians organized pro-Trump and anti-Trump demonstrations, once in New York City on the same day. They also staged an anti-Trump rally in Charlotte.

President Obama was certainly aware of the meddling when he was president but apparently chose to do little about it except to wiretap the Trump campaign. The fact is the Russians have a long history of meddling in America affairs going back to their Soviet Union days. Trump was only guilty of winning the presidential election, much to the dismay of the Trump haters who gave him no chance. That the Democrats ran a badly flawed candidate makes no difference to those suffering from Trump derangement.

Stephen Davis

Eighty Four