Do MAGA supporters know what actually made America great?

Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.

Remember, he’s the president of the US

‘He’s not become the ruler of the whole world’
The media coverage of Donald Trump’s inauguration has been huge, and in fact ridiculously excessive. There needs to be a reality check here.

At the end of the day, he has been elected president of the US, a country thousands of miles away, which accounts for only around four per cent of the world’s population.

He was actually only chosen by around half of those who decided to vote in the presidential election there.

Even in the US, he doesn’t have a licence to do whatever he wants. Congress has the power to override the president and, on top of this, the individual states there have some degree of autonomy.

It seems that some people need to get a sense of proportion about Trump. It’s not like he’s just become some kind of ruler for the whole world. Kevin, Watford

‘Why did he not place his hand on the bible?’
Trump believes he was ‘saved by God to make America great again.’ So why did he not place his hand on the bible? Was he afraid he would burst into flames? Maz, Cumbernauld

Monday was a sad day for the planet. Neil Dance, Birmingham

Public inquiries

‘Can we get an inquiry into Brexit lies?’
Given we now have more inquiries into the grooming gangs and one into Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, it seems that if we make enough noise, we can get public inquiries into everything.

Can we therefore all make some noise to have an inquiry on the Brexit lies Pedro, Hammersmith

Taking cash isn’t always to avoid tax

‘They just want 100% of the cash’
Henry (MetroTalk, Mon) says those shops who only take cash are ‘presumably’ doing it to avoid declaring their true turnover to HMRC.

He obviously doesn’t know that the reason some shops prefer to take cash is that they get 100 per cent of the retail price, whereas if customers choose to pay by card or phone, the credit card companies or banks charge the shops a percentage
for using that option. Roger, London

‘Credit card companies fleece local honest folk for their service’
Sadly, Henry must live in a high crime society if all his local traders are defrauding the revenue. Small-town businesses struggle to compete with the oligopoly of ‘price-fixing’ supermarkets and other multinationals.

To compound the problems of these honest local folk, the credit card companies fleece them for their service, hence why so many prefer cash.

It’s refreshing to see cash usage rising post-Covid. Maybe it’s because we care about our trustworthy local shops and businesses. Phil B, Brighton

‘It’s propaganda to make us go cashless’
I am sick to death of people wrongly stating that businesses go cash-only to either avoid paying tax or launder money.

This is completely untrue and is part of the propaganda of card companies and cashless businesses to try to force a cashless society.

As far as ‘avoiding paying tax’, look at all the huge companies that have been in the news for paying no tax or considerably less than they should – the sales made by those giants were likely paid in predominately card transactions.

A cashless society will make millions of people unemployed to fuel the corporate greed of people that already have way too much money. Debbie, Croydon

Guess how many playing fields the Tories sold off between 1979 and 1997…

‘That’s nothing…’
I’d like to join Martin (MetroTalk, Mon) in countering Madeline (Fri), who blamed Tony Blair for selling off school playing fields. Yes, the Labour government did sell off more than 200 playing fields between 1997 and 2010. However, this was nothing in comparison to the previous Conservative government between 1979 and 1997, who are reported to have sold off more than 10,000! Mike, Braintree

‘There’s nothing inflation-busting about it.’
Could Chris (MetroTalk, Tue) explain why my 4.5 per cent pay rise is ‘inflation-busting’ when inflation was at 11 per cent in 2022. Doug, Witham

‘The Tories are criticising Labour for anything they can think of’
The Tories’ time in power was a litany of incompetence, greed and corruption, from junior ministers up to the PM. Now they are criticising Labour for anything they can think of. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Andrew, Hornchurch

‘Laura was right to call out ‘pompous’ host Madeley’

‘I don’t watch Good Morning Britain when Madeley’s on it anymore’
Is it only me who finds Richard Madeley the most pompous and irritating of all the TV presenters?

Having watched his dismissive and know-it-all interview techniques a few years ago, I really don’t watch Good Morning Britain when he is on any more.

If he disagrees with the person he interviews, he does not listen and, in some cases, simply tries to deride the person.

Although his spat with weather forecaster Laura Tobin sounds trivial – she called him out for not paying any attention to her report – it sums up the man, he doesn’t listen and then asks the question already answered. Not a good look for a TV presenter, unless you are Alan Partridge.
Oh, and telling his audience in August that it was time to ‘lay off’ Prince Andrew made me and many others angry. Corin, London

When will food manufacturers get with the program and add cooking instructions?

‘Air fryers have been around for several years’
Why are we still not having air fryer settings included on cooking instructions?

I can only name a couple of manufacturers who do and yet these devices have been around for several years.

I boil my breakfast egg in one. Ten minutes at 120C for medium/soft, 14 for hard boiled and no saucepan to wash up. Joan, Sutton