Forerunners dwarf Trump

George Washington commandeered a ragtag militia to defeat the British Empire’s professional soldiers and once in office as president of the new United States of America established an army and oversaw the adoption of the bill of rights — probably the most important codification of the rights of man since the Magna Carta.

Thomas Jefferson negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, almost doubling the size of the US overnight. James Madison held off the British when they seemed destined to sink the newly formed nation. Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson defeated secessionists threatening to tear the country apart in a brutal civil war and abolished slavery.

Teddy Roosevelt broke up cartels and oversaw the building of the Panama Canal. Woodrow Wilson helped end the Great War and introduced women’s suffrage. Franklin Roosevelt’s policies ended the Great Depression and later helped to defeat the Nazis, Japanese and their allies and bring peace to Europe and much of Asia. Lyndon Johnson, a consummate deal maker, managed to get most of modern civil-rights legislation passed, ending centuries of law-based segregation and oppression of blacks across the US.

Richard Nixon ended the Vietnam War and was in office when the US sent men to the moon. Ronald Reagan brought an end to the Cold War. Bill Clinton came close to sealing Israeli Palestinian peace and balanced the budget.

None of these men was perfect and many would be judged quite harshly nowadays on their view regarding women, Jews, blacks and others. Yet in the context of history they can be seen as examples of the presidents from various political parties that created, industrialised and maintained the world’s greatest and only superpower while other empires collapsed.

In contrast, the only significant achievement in office for Donald Trump, despite majorities in both houses of Congress, is a tax cut for companies and the wealthy that worsens the US’s long-term fiscal health. Nathan Cheiman (Trump has championed US, February 8) believes that Trump’s one year in office makes him the greatest president in the history of the US and “liberals” and “pseudo-intellectuals” unfairly malign his supporters as uneducated wackos.

With claims like this, is he trying to prove their point for them?

Suhail Suleman

Claremont