Trump has no mandate

I took particular exception to the March 7 letter titled “Give Trump a chance.”

Perhaps the author is suffering from a bout of confusion similar to that which apparently overtook him at the polls, because he’s under the impression that the majority of Americans agreed with his choice.

This “alternative fact,” of course, conveniently ignores that about 3 million more people voted for his opponent than for President Donald Trump.

While it’s clear that Trump is now this country’s elected leader, that doesn’t mean his supporters can act as though he has some kind of overwhelming mandate — at least not without being called out on it.

Nor does this mean that the majority (who did not vote for Trump) must for some mysterious reason now stand silently by as he does his worst.

After all, need I remind the letter writer that Republicans hardly refrained from “whining” like petulant kindergarteners for the past eight years after decisively losing the Electoral College and popular votes twice?

Surely he’d agree that what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander? If not, that would make him quite the hypocrite, wouldn’t it?

This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Trump has no mandate."