Sir, – Niall O'Dowd makes the extraordinary claim that Donald Trump's election win with 46 per cent of the vote was "the smallest electoral total in history for a winning American presidential candidate" ("Trump's silent majority the ultimate fake news story", Opinion & Analysis, January 17th).
In fact, five other US presidents were elected with a lower share of the vote, including Abraham Lincoln with 39 per cent, Richard Nixon with 43 per cent, and Bill Clinton also with 43 per cent.
Niall O’Dowd has written in your newspaper many times to extol the virtues of Mr Clinton, and I don’t recall any occasion on which he questioned the legitimacy of his election or described his popularity as “fake” or a “myth”. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
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Clontarf,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – Most people would agree that musicians are fully entitled to refuse to perform at the inauguration of a president they don’t agree with. I wonder if caterers get similar latitude if asked to provide cakes for such events? – Yours, etc,
COLIN WALSH,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.