To the Editor:

Re “Emails Disclose Trump Son’s Glee at Russian Offer” (front page, July 12):

It is easy to see why Donald Trump Jr. would love any help Russia might give to his father’s campaign, but while we question his obliviousness to the issues this help raises, we should also consider why the Russians wanted Donald J. Trump to become president.

It wasn’t to make America great again.

JAMIE BALDWIN, REDDING, CONN.

To the Editor:

Here’s a hypothetical: Suppose the Russian government indeed had damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Suppose that the Trump campaign had accepted and used this information (as at least Donald Trump Jr. was clearly eager to do: “I love it”) to help the senior Mr. Trump win the 2016 election.

Wouldn’t President Vladimir V. Putin then have had blackmail material that could have been used against Mr. Trump as long as his presidency lasted?

None of the people who were willing to discuss the Russian offer of information — Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, the campaign manager, and Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner — seem to have had the slightest awareness of this rather obvious danger.