Simon Jenkins’ article (He may talk rubbish but Trump has an eye for beauty, and that is a breath of fresh air, 1 August) was for the most part milquetoast Trump apologia, studded with the usual non-criticisms to give an impression of impartiality (yes, Trump does sometimes “talk rubbish”) and lauding one particular droplet in his firehose stream of insanity as some sort of visionary pronouncement (I would argue one of his more significant early actions was to economically attack my country, deride its sovereignty and muse on annexing us, but yes, restoring federal buildings is nice, too.)
Where the article veered into insulting territory, however, was in comparing Trump to Teddy Roosevelt, claiming that both men “seemed to care about America’s natural environment, its forests and deserts, and a role for Washington in their custodianship”.
To call this comparison absurd would be an understatement. Teddy Roosevelt was a committed conservationist who created the United States Forest Service; Trump called climate change a Chinese hoax. Roosevelt greatly expanded the national parks system; Trump opened up national parks in Alaska for oil drilling. Roosevelt created 51 wild bird reserves; Trump neutered the Migratory Bird Treaty Act at the behest of the fossil fuel industry. Roosevelt used executive orders to protect 600,000sq km of forest from logging and other exploitation; Trump used executive orders to try to bring back coal. Should I go on?
Justin Joschko
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• Imposing classical revival styles in federal architecture is the tool of dictators. To insinuate that Trump has any taste at all fails. His own ostentatious display of wealth by dipping everything that he surrounds himself with in cheesy gold paint is proof. The American Institute of Architects is on record against this mandate as being retrograde, and calls out this failure to promote forward-reaching design and creative excellence.
Joe Simmons
Santa Fe, New Mexico, US
• Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. As I have driven across Kansas, Oklahoma and crossing into California from Arizona on Interstate 10, I smile when I see those turbines turning and think, ah, green energy, less pollution and saving the planet. They, to me, are beautiful, much better than coal belching pollutants into the atmosphere.
Kathryn Ackers
Leawood, Kansas, US
• How disingenuous to suggest that President Trump has any care for the aesthetic beauty of our environment, without noting his zeal for plundering the earth’s resources to their limit for personal and private profit. Don’t we all remember “Drill, baby, drill”? His antipathy to wind turbines, regardless of where they are sited, owes more to his loathing for renewable energy solutions than it does to his concerns about aesthetic beauty.
Jane Hutcheson
Castle Carrock, Cumbria
• If Donald Trump has an eye for beauty, why did he destroy the sand dunes near Aberdeen in order to install his golf course?
Cliff Saxton
Lauzun, France
