To the editor:

It sadly appears obvious that President-elect Donald J. Trump constantly exaggerates what he perceives to be of a positive nature regarding every aspect of his persona, as well as what he perceives as his personal achievements. An example of his outlandish self-aggrandizement is that Trump stated that his victory in the presidential election was “an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” and that he won in a landslide.

However, Trump earned 49.86 percent of the popular vote as opposed to 48.26 percent for his Democratic challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris, which is a margin of 1.62 percent, which is one of the closest margins of victory in a presidential election since the 1800s.

Throughout the election cycle, Trump constantly claimed without a shred of evidence that the election was somehow rigged against him, as he had done ad infinitum through the 2016 and 2020 elections until he actually won in 2016 and 2024.

Obviously, the only free and fair elections for Trump are those he wins, as he continues to refuse to concede publicly that he lost the 2020 presidential election to current President Joe Biden, although he has never had evidence to support his baseless claims, and that extensive investigations by true professionals have determined that the 2020 presidential election was possibly the fairest and most accurate in the history of our great nation, and that Trump’s extremely massive ego will simply not permit him to do what is best for our country and respect the will of the voters and properly concede, as all other in his then-position had willfully done throughout our history.

In addition, Trump’ has made it abundantly clear that upon his return to the White House, he plans to pardon those who have been convicted and incarcerated for their violent actions in staging an attempted coup on Jan. 6, 2021, in order to keep then-President Trump illegally in the executive mansion, as they were unquestionably provoked to do so by Trump, who has stated that he plans to attempt to convict members of the Jan. 6 committee, as well as others who were essentially doing their jobs in support of our democratic form of government.

Much of Trump’s self-serving egomanical approach to the real world was essentially formed decades ago as a result of his self-described mentoring by the infamous and disgraced Roy Cohn, who had served decades ago as a lead attorney for the Trump Organization under Donald’s father, Fred Trump, and also served as an attorney for numerous mafia leaders and was chief counsel for the Senate Investigative Committee under disgraced Sen. Joseph McCarthy during a period known as the Red Scare. During this period, McCarthy claimed that the government had been infiltrated by communists, claims that were completely discredited.

It has been reported that Cohn taught Trump to never admit defeat under any circumstances, never admit wrongdoing and openly accuse you adversaries of transgressions that you have committed.

Lessons, without question, that Trump learned very well, and practices wholeheartedly to this day.

Richard Hord

Martins Ferry