Donald Trump is not thin-skinned, he will get along just fine with David Lammy - Yorkshire Post Letters

Bill Carmichael lambasts the new Foreign Secretary David Lammy (‘Dire Consequences of Inflammatory Rhetoric’, July 19) for foolish comments he made about Donald Trump some years ago.

Mr Carmichael suggests that Mr Lammy's words could damage the relationship between the British and American governments if Mr Trump is elected in November.

"Trump strikes me as a thin-skinned man who won't forget such juvenile abuse too easily," writes Mr Carmichael.

I would suggest that Mr Carmichael is misjudging both politicians in this case.

Eight years ago, in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, a young man called JD Vance was a bitter critic of Donald Trump, calling the Republican presidential candidate an "idiot" and saying he was "reprehensible." Privately, he apparently compared Trump to Adolf Hitler.

And yet Mr Vance is now Mr Trump's Vice-Presidential nominee because Trump recognises his ability and Vance now has a far greater insight into Trump's character than in 2016, when he was judging Trump by the standards of his media critics.

If Trump were thin-skinned, I rather doubt that he would be involved in politics, given everything that has been thrown at him.

And of course he is perfectly capable of resorting to juvenile abuse himself, usually in order to gain media attention, at which he has succeeded brilliantly.

But it's unwise to misunderstand this. Mr Lammy and Mr Trump will get along fine because Trump will have respect for the office he holds and I'm certain that Mr Lammy is intelligent enough to understand this point.