To the editor:

Mr. Olsen has a valid point: “the jaundiced elite lost the election.”

Yes, by a whopping 3 million votes. However, Mr. Olsen may not know that Mr. Trump refers to this elite as his “super elite” (June 28, 2018 speech to supporters in Minnesota). “We are the super elite,” he proclaimed. So, the super elite lost the election and is understandably bitter.

Mr. Olsen correctly observes that this elite does now “nonstop bullying and spreads nonstop falsehoods” to, I assume, legitimize Mr. Trump’s election.

The falsehoods started out with the birther claim, Mr. Trump’s assertion that he had the greatest number of admirers ever to attend a presidential inauguration, that an “epidemic voter fraud” stole his election, that climate change is a hoax, and the proclamation that the press is the enemy of the people. Every autocrat needs a whipping boy.

The boldest falsehood however, was to add $1 trillion to the national debt and call it “tax reform.” To be fair Mr. Trump had an astounding solution to the national debt problem. He suggested to Gary Cohn, to pay for the deficit by printing more money: “Just run the presses, print money.” Oh, the genius. Why didn’t Germany think of that when she run out of money after World War I?

The Oscar of falsehoods, however, goes to the claim that the U.S. has been victimized economically by China, Mexico, Europa and Canada. Mr. Trump believed that by slapping high tariffs on imported consumer goods the U.S. will equal the playing field and the benefits will trickle down to the consumer.

But, for some as yet unexplained reason, it made all consumer goods more expensive and will add 20 percent to 30 percent to the cost of repair and reconstruction of new homes in North and South Carolina and the rest of the country. To pacify the U.S. farmers who found themselves with products but no buyer, Mr. Trump authorized a $12 billion relief fund, to return the money his tariff took away.

So, Mr. Olsen, “the jaundiced elite” and their leader must bully and spread falsehoods as you so eloquently pointed out, to keep the super elite from discovering that the emperor has no clothes and no clue.

JAMES BEHREND

Bainbridge Island