IT was very sad to see Doug Maughan (Letters, July 17) descend from his usually thoughtful opinions to unjustified, puerile name-calling of the President of the United States.

It is relevant to provide context to Donald Trump's Twitter comments regarding the four congresswomen. None of these politicians would appear to have a firm grip on the truth when it comes to attacking Mr Trump and his policies. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on a recent visit to the border with Mexico claimed illegal immigrants were forced to drink from toilets, which was rapidly shown to be a complete fabrication, but this did not stop her screaming at border control guards and claiming they had assaulted her – another invention. She also recently suggested that she would close down the department which is, among other areas, responsible for security of the country and also disaster relief.

Perhaps we should consider Ilhan Omar, who told schoolchildren that she knew a woman who was imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread. Not only was this totally untrue and impossible under US law but it was in fact a direct take from Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. Or should we consider Rashida Tliab, who defends and has strong links to the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group? The list goes on.

Mr Maughan is unfortunately typical of many in the UK who unquestioningly swallow the negative press which pours out of the Democrat-biased US media.

I have no idea what Mr Trump is like as a person, but neither, I am certain, does Mr Maughan. Perhaps it would be sensible before calling someone names to consider the words of a former director of the CIA who said: "When you see something in the media do not say 'Is that a fact?' Rather say 'Who wants me to believe it is a fact?' and you will have a much clearer view of the world."

David Stubley, Prestwick.

I AM no apologist for Donald Trump, far from it, but to me some of the criticism of his tweet about the four Democratic Congresswomen has lacked balance as witnessed by the belief of Sam Craig (Letters, July 17) that Mr Trump was advocating deporting these ladies. On reading the whole of his tweet, quite unrealistically he was challenging them to go (mistakenly back) to what he considers “broken" countries, fix them and then to return, repeat return, to the United States to explain what they had done. There was no suggestion of deportation, but the imbalance arises because of the focus on them “going" with no mention of them “returning".

Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.