Trump fully entitled to be president

Re: What everybody knows about America, Oct. 10.

Columnist Andrew Cohen disputes U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim to have won the presidency by a “landslide.” Cohen correctly points out that Trump won the popular vote in 30 of the 50 states. Clinton won the popular vote in the other 20. According to the New York Times, the final tally in the allimportant electoral college was 304 votes for Trump and 227 for Clinton. That is a margin of 77 votes. It may not be a landslide, but it is a significant margin and fully entitles Trump to the presidency.

Cohen refers to Trump’s “constituency of older, less educated white men.” If I were an American, that would include me. I can’t help being old (80 on my last birthday) or white (since birth), and I might be less educated than Cohen (I have no university degree). But I made a good living as a journalist for more than 50 years. According to Cohen, people like me have three strikes against them. If he had said the same thing of, say, middle-aged, less educated black women, what would have been the reaction?

I have a conservative view of the world. Cohen obviously does not. But he is not entitled to claim, as a fact, that Trump’s recent Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh “lied to the Senate on the reality of his colourful adolescence.” I may be old-school but it is unacceptable to call someone a liar without proof.

True, the U.S. has a leader who won with less than 50 per cent of the popular vote. But I believe Trump is doing a heck of job in protecting and furthering American interests. And I believe Canada, even if incidentally, is getting some of the benefits. Michael Prentice, Kanata