Allow me to share a story. In the 1980s, my father was a consultant to an Italian car designer. He had a good working relationship with the managing director, so it came as no surprise that he was invited to attend a meeting with one of its suppliers to discuss modifying a car’s part. When they were received into this man’s office in Turin, the managing director ushered my father forward while he lingered behind and did not shake the man’s hand. After they had left the meeting, the managing director whispered: “He supported Mussolini.” By then, Benito Mussolini had been dead for over 40 years, but the enmity toward him and his followers was still palpable.

Remember, in this past century it was Mussolini who perfected the tactic of telling a lie and then repeating it until enough of the population accepted it that it became truth to them. Adolf Hitler copied it, and now, so has Trump. A 2024 survey of historians ranks Trump as the worst president in United States history.

While Trump may live in his own rosy world, history will not be so kind.

Richard McWilliams
Yarmouth