President-elect Donald Trump. Credit:AP This is a president who can barely express himself, for whom being right is more important than being informed and being first more important that being considered; for whom mockery is more important than respect and the cheap shot is more important than decency. Instead of going high, to paraphrase First Lady Michelle Obama, when he thought Lewis' challenge to the legitimacy of his election victory was low, Trump launched a scathing personal attack, tweeting that Lewis "should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and is falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results ... John Lewis should focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the US". As The New York Times' columnist Charles Blow wrote of Trump, who was still managing to evade service in Vietnam when a state trooper used a truncheon to fracture Lewis' skull during the civil rights protest marches in Selma, Alabama, in 1965: "Stop and think … a lecher attacking a legend; a man of moral depravity attacking a man of moral certitude; an intellectual weakling attacking a warrior for justice. This on Martin Luther King Jr weekend, no less." Trump is the legally elected president of the US but, thin-skinned as always, he is being eaten by the legitimacy question: he lost the popular vote by about three million votes, the biggest losing margin in US history. Although it can't be quantified, gross interference by Russia and the FBI made the election a questionable contest and, according to the Pew Research Group, he enters the White House less popular than any of his predecessors.

Civil rights legend and Democratic Congressman John Lewis plans to boycott the inauguration. Credit:Bloomberg But Trump can hardly be shocked at the notion of a president's legitimacy being questioned. For years he did precisely that to President Barack Obama, without a shred of evidence supporting his claim that Obama was not born in the US. Apart from coinciding with the MLK holiday weekend, Trump's blast came only days after confirmation hearings for his controversial choice of Alabama senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney-general. A painful history: John Lewis participated in the Selma March in 1965. Credit:Charles Shaw/Getty Images Sessions' alleged racism was enough for a GOP-dominated Senate panel to reject his 1980s judicial nomination. Lewis and others warned during the hearings that, as the country's top law officer, Sessions could undo decades of progress in race relations.

Not surprisingly, Trump suddenly finds himself feuding with some of the country's most senior African American leaders and the row has prompted more Democrats to announce they'll be boycotting his inauguration. They now number 26. Dr Martin Luther King jnr holds his head after being struck by a rock as he was leading about 600 demonstrators on a civil rights march through a Chicago neighbourhood in 1966. "What [he's] telling black people is that all the things John Lewis directly was involved in, that resulted in the [civil rights] legislation that we are fighting to maintain and make permanent, [he] considers nothing," Reverend Al Sharpton, who led a weekend protest in Washington, said. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Cornell William Brooks engaged Trump on his own turf, tweeting a graphic picture of the young and bloodied protester Lewis and saying: "By disrespecting @repjohnlewis, @realDonaldTrump dishonored Lewis' sacrifice; demeaned Americans; the rights, he nearly died 4. Apologize." Trump has promised an inauguration that would be "very, very special, very beautiful". Credit:AP

Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African-American studies at Duke University, said: "I don't think we have ever had a president so publicly condescending to what black politics means." Michael Gerson, formerly a speechwriter for George W. Bush and now a Washington Post columnist, also defended Lewis, describing the Trump tweets as "the essence of narcissism". Martin Luther King III in the lobby of Trump Tower. Credit:Bloomberg He wrote: "Trump seems to have no feel for, no interest in, the American story he is about to enter. "He will lead a nation that accommodated a cruel exception to its founding creed; that bled and nearly died to recover its ideals; and that was only fully redeemed by the courage and moral clarity of the very people it had oppressed. People like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. People like John Lewis … Were John Lewis to call me every name in the book, I would still honor him."

US President-elect Donald Trump in an elevator in the lobby of Trump Tower. Credit:Bloomberg Apart from his tone deafness, Trump also has been called out on facts: Lewis' Atlanta congressional district does have poor neighbourhoods but it also has wealth enclaves such as Buckhead, and it is home to the world's busiest airport, several respected institutions, including the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Institute of Technology. It's also the corporate headquarters of Coca-Cola, among others. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution hit back with a page-one headline: ATLANTA TO TRUMP: WRONG. And its columnist Jim Galloway's challenge was headlined: "Dear Donald Trump: Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler Have Retired." Apart from Trump's warm, contemporary embrace of white supremacists and nationalists, he has his own dubious record on race. In the 1970s, he and his father were sued by the Justice Department for discriminating against black would-be tenants. And in 1989, he bought full-page advertisements in The New York Times urging that five black and Hispanic teenagers accused of raping a woman in Central Park be executed. Even when the five were exonerated, he criticised the city for compensating them for wrongful imprisonment.

Trump was expected to mark MLK day with a visit to Washington's new Museum of African-American History, but that was cancelled without explanation. Instead he had what was described as a "hastily organised" meeting in New York with Martin Luther King III, the oldest of Martin Luther King jnr's children. At the end of the 50-minute session, King emerged, telling reporters the encounter had been "constructive", adding: "He said that he is going to represent Americans. He's said that over and over again [and] we will continue to evaluate that." In what appeared to be a bid to ease the tension, King tried to step around the Lewis row, saying: "In the heat of emotion, a lot of things get said on both sides." Declaring that "we" had to move forward, he said: "I think my father would be very concerned about the 50 to 60 million people living in poverty. It's insanity that we have poor people in this nation, it's unacceptable. We need to be talking about how to clothe people, how do we feed people." Lewis has not engaged the Trump tweets directly. But speaking at a Miami breakfast to mark the MLK holiday on Monday, he celebrated King's philosophy of non-violence in a veiled swipe at Trump's aggressive style. "You must never, ever hate," he said. "Stand up, speak up, when you see something that is not right and not fair and not just. You have a moral obligation to do something and say something."

Loading On Sunday, Trump was still belting the Twitter keys. "For many years our country has been divided, angry and untrusting. Many say it will never change, the hatred is too deep. IT WILL CHANGE!!!!" Funny way to go about it.