I read Richard Wolffe’s typically engaging contribution on the Trump White House with interest (Trump’s right on one thing – his people truly are gutless, 7 September).

He compares the mindset of the anonymous benign insurgents to hypothetical functionaries in Mussolini’s Italy who may have wished to act “for the good of the republic”. Italy was actually a monarchy until 1946, after Mussolini had met his fate. I do not make this point merely out of pedantry, but to highlight how easy it is for an educated and excellent writer to overlook the fact that Mussolini was never the legal head of state. King Victor Emmanuel III deposed Mussolini in 1943 after Italy’s military suffered disastrous losses, but he had the constitutional authority to remove the fascist dictator earlier had he so wished; however, few would argue that he had the capacity to do so.

It serves as a warning in populist times of what can happen when we fail to maintain the strength and legitimacy of our institutions of governance and the rule of law.

Dr Graham Symon

University of Greenwich

• Richard Wolffe says President Trump is “fundamentally a threat to democracy”. We should remind ourselves that American democracy was at fault long before Trump was elected. After all, almost 62 million electors put him in the White House with the support of the electoral college. Unlike many of those who voted for Brexit, they knew the nature of what they were voting for, whereas the dire implications of Brexit were not known at the time of the referendum.

Phineas Bury

Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, Ireland

• Jonathan Freedland rightly expresses concern at the threat to democracy of the president’s staff “sabotaging” Trump plans (If you were on his staff, how would you tackle Trump?, 8 September). How, Freedland asks the Guardian reader, would we feel if that were done to a progressive?

Hasn’t Jonathan watched Yes Minister? Or wondered what happened to Obama’s plans? (It usually is done to the progressives.)

Interfering with democracy is as old as democracy itself.

Geraldine Winkler

Bristol

• Has anyone considered that perhaps Donald Trump wrote the opinion piece published in last Wednesday’s New York Times? It would be the perfect way to flush out his internal opponents while responding to it in the predictable way that he has to cover his tracks. On second thoughts, statecraft and subtlety are not his forte.

Paul Faupel

Somersham, Cambridgeshire

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• The first letter was amended on 11 September 2018 because the writer meant to refer to King Victor Emmanuel III, not Umberto II.