DONALD TRUMP lied incessantly throughout his presidency, starting on the day of his inauguration with the ridiculous and demonstrably false claim that his inauguration crowd was bigger than Barack Obama’s.

Any news story he didn’t like, even from impeccable sources and supported by incontrovertible evidence, was dismissed as “fake news”, while he promulgated endless lies and distortions via Twitter.

The so-called “facts” about election fraud mentioned by Peter Richardson (HAS, Jan 29) have been comprehensively debunked. Trump’s legal challenges to the election result have been thrown out of court. His allegations of massive voting fraud have been rejected by judges and state election officials.

Trump has a history of questioning the legitimacy of election results he doesn’t like. He described President Obama’s re-election in 2012 as a “total sham”, saying: “We should march on Washington and stop this travesty.”

During the 2016 primaries, when his Republican rival won the nomination in Iowa, he said: “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it.”

Getting elected president in 2016 through the Electoral College vote wasn’t enough for Trump – he insisted he had also won the popular vote, though in fact Hilary Clinton won three million more votes than him.

Finally, he announced well in advance that he would not accept the result of the 2020 election if it went against him, saying: “The only way we’re going to lose this election is if it is rigged.”

Trump’s lasting legacy will be that he has inspired and empowered an army of cranks, liars and conspiracy theorists lurking on the internet.

Pete Winstanley, Durham.