Facebook group with 10,000 members asks parents to take pictures of their children’s letters and share them with hashtag #kidsletterstotrump

It was a touchstone of the Hillary Clinton campaign to paint Donald Trump as an alarming figure who was far from a positive role model for children.

One campaign ad, called “role models”, which was viewed more than a million times on youtube, featured young children watching some of Trump’s most controversial and profane comments - including calling Mexican immigrants rapists and mocking a reporter with disabilities - with impressionable expressions.

In the wake of Trump’s victory, parents have tried to turn a divisive and bitter election into a learning curve – by getting their children to write positive letters to the president-elect and mailing them to Trump Tower.

A Facebook group called “Dear President Trump: Letters from Kids About Kindness” was set up the day after the election by Molly Spence Sahebjami.

Sahebjami’s idea was for children to write letters to Trump “about the importance of being kind to other people, even if they’re different than you are”.

The mother, a resident of Seattle, where voters overwhelmingly supported Clinton, said she knew many others who disapproved of Trump’s caustic language in the course of the campaign. She told the Washington Post that she decided to set up the group after her son, who goes to kindergarten, expressed concern about things Trump had said about Muslims because the family were of Iranian descent.

“[Children] don’t know anything about the issues, like manufacturing jobs,” Sahebjami said. “But they know – at least where I live, it’s really prevalent [for kids] to say, ‘Oh, he’s the mean one’.”

She added: “So I said to [my son], ‘Well maybe we should write a letter to him and we can show him. Why don’t you talk to him about why it’s important to be kind?’”

Her son’s letter read: “Dear President-elect Trump, please be a good president. Be kind to all people. Some people in my family are a special religion and they are not bad guys.”

While the Facebook group is closed to prevent negative comments, members can add other members, and more than 10,000 people have now joined. They have been encouraged to take pictures of their children’s letters and share them on social media using the hashtag #kidsletterstotrump.

“DEAR MR TRUMP Be kind please FROM A Littel Boy TOMMY,” read one letter.

Another, from a 13-year-old girl, stated: “Dear Donald Trump. Congratulations! To be honest you were not my first pick. I just wanted to tell you that I didn’t like the way you campaigned. You made women (including myself) feel bad, you discouraged people who weren’t like you. However, I am going to put those feelings aside and I hope that you will prove me wrong.”

Lara (@larahollingswor) #kidsletterstotrump 13 yrs old and gracious beyond her years. This was the day after, with tears flowing down her face. #wearewatching pic.twitter.com/2zbj2PmvoB

Barbara Meskin (@barbarajmeskin) My 4yo: "lf Trump sees us all being nice to each other, maybe he'll be nice and stop saying bad words." #Hope #Idealism #KidsLettersToTrump

Dan Bernstein (@dan_bernstein) One concerned 6th-grader's letter to our President-elect. #kidsletterstotrump pic.twitter.com/IxSkOSwtKH

An episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live last week also opened with a comedic segment where children were asked about their thoughts on Trump. “We’ve heard from pundits, surrogates, experts and anchors, but we haven’t yet heard from kids. So, this afternoon we went out on the street just outside our theatre to ask children to give us their thoughts on our next president,” Kimmel said.

This week, a new social media craze, called the #TrumpsComingChallenge, saw videos posted online by high school students who film each other yelling “Trump’s coming!” before everyone runs away screaming.