To the Editor:

President Trump wants to be an American version of Vladimir Putin of Russia and cannot understand why there are factions in this country that oppose this. Mr. Trump wants to be like Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and kill drug dealers. Mr. Trump wants to be like Xi Jinping of China and be president for life.

Mr. Trump is not stupid. He may be intentionally ignorant or uninterested in certain options if they don’t serve his limited agenda. Plenty of smart people rise to success of a sort despite strategies that do not embrace a larger understanding of the consequences of being unfair or dishonest or immoral or selfish.

Mr. Trump does not appreciate how reducing diversity or silencing alternate intelligent voices will have dire consequences in the long term. He just wants instant gratification and to protect at any cost a view of himself as uniquely capable.

The world must be a shallow, materialistic place to be deceived by these men. But this is what you get when you allow selfish children to rule the world — “Lord of the Flies.”