“I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House,” said pop star Madonna in a profanity-laced speech at the Women’s March on Washington last weekend.

Ignoring for a moment that 18 U.S. Code 2385 makes it a felony to “knowingly or willfully” threaten violence against the president of the United States, Madonna’s comments are a new low in our nation’s ever-coarsening public debate.

Since Donald Trump’s election, some Americans have made every effort to delegitimize our new president. These misguided attempts undermine our republic and our electoral process, and fuel divisiveness in our politics. If this trend continues, the damage to our nation could long outlast any damage done to its current leader.  

So let’s set the record straight.

Donald Trump is the legitimately elected president of the United States. He won the Electoral College vote, which is the method of selecting our president prescribed in Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution.

Through the wisdom of the Electoral College, our Founding Fathers worked to ensure that citizens of every state, not just the most populated, have a say in selecting our President. The Framers understood that selecting the president by popular vote would disproportionately advantage populated urban centers over sparsely populated states. Large swaths of our country would be silenced.

Some argue that President Trump is not a legitimate president because he lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes. But this argument ignores that roughly 150 percent of Secretary Clinton’s margin comes from one state – California, where she won by 4.3 million votes. Without California, Trump would have received 1.4 million more popular votes than Clinton.

Others argue that Trump is illegitimate because they believe Russia influenced the election outcome. Despite this rhetoric, there is absolutely no evidence that Russia in any way loaded ballot boxes, tampered with voting machines or otherwise impacted vote totals.  

Russia did expose information about Secretary Clinton and her campaign.Information that included facts like: 1) some news outlets leaked debate questions early to Mrs. Clinton, 2) some of her advisors – much like the American people – questioned the ethics of the Clinton Foundation, and 3) Mrs. Clinton potentially jeopardized national security by using a private, unsecured server.

While every American should oppose cyber-attacks orchestrated by foreign governments, it’s important to acknowledge that every fact leaked by the Russians appears to be the truth. So, to say that Russia influenced the election is to say that the truth about Mrs. Clinton – however inconvenient it may be for her campaign – made the American people change their mind.

Now, it’s long past time to move on and allow our new leader to govern. On January 20^th for the 58^th time, our nation celebrated the peaceful transition of power through a process designed by our Founding Fathers to give legitimacy to every duly-elected president. 

Without a doubt, that transition marked a shift in political ideology. But let’s all remember, that shift occurred for one reason. The American people chose a new way. 

You may not have voted for Donald Trump. You may not agree with how your neighbor or the citizens of a neighboring state voted. But that doesn’t change the fact that Donald Trump won, and it sure doesn’t change the fact that we’re all still Americans.

I pray for this country and its good citizens, including the Madonnas of the world. I know this country is best when its citizens are a team working together for the betterment of all.

In that spirit, we should welcome debate on the tough issues facing this great nation and its people. But we should also wholeheartedly reject destructive comments that undercut our new president and his ability to lead.

At this point, hoping our president fails is like hoping for the failure of the pilot flying your plane. You may not like the pilot, but everyone on the plane should want him to succeed.

Republican Congressman Luke Messer represents Indiana’s sixth congressional district.