What is Trump’s strategy in contesting the election?

His chances of successfully contesting the results were small to begin with, and they have become smaller each day. Now there’s virtually no chance — unless the Kraken appears in about the next five minutes.

So what’s the end game?

Trump is a spoil sport and can’t accept defeat, or that he was ever wrong. And that may be enough explanation, but I think it’s deeper than that. I think Trump is very angry about the disgraceful way he was treated by the Democrats, and he wants to pay them back. See this as an example of that kind of thinking.

The 2020 election has provided fertile ground upon which Republicans can spend the next four years doing to Joe Biden what the Democrats did to Donald Trump and George W. Bush.

For four years, Democrats and their media allies trumpeted every claim, no matter how baseless or crazy, that Trump’s 2016 election win was illegitimate and fraudulent. Despite zero evidence that so much as a single vote was interfered with, Democrats peddled the hoax that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to elect Trump. Even after the Mueller investigation exonerated Trump and his campaign from the collusion canard, Democrats, led by the shameless Adam Schiff, continued to allege collusion. Their simple goal was to undermine and delegitimize the Trump presidency. It clearly worked to the degree some voters turned their backs on Trump even as they voted Republican down-ballot. Revenge of the Republicans

Are we going to have four more years of “not my president,” now from the Republicans?

I hope not.

I’m sure there was cheating in the election. Humans were involved, and humans cheat. But I doubt there was enough cheating to make a difference. Still, credible claims of voter fraud must be investigated, and, if found, new measures must be put in place to make sure things are fair.

At the same time, we have to allow the normal process to go forward unless and until there’s clear, compelling evidence of sufficient fraud to call the results into question.

Which raises an interesting question. What if Biden is inaugurated and then we determine, five months later, that he didn’t really win?

I don’t think that’s going to happen, but I wonder what the procedure would be.

Also, Trump has not been one to follow presidential precedent. Ex-presidents are supposed to fade into the background and allow the new guy to do his job.

I don’t think Trump will do that. I think he’ll start campaigning for 2024 as soon as he leaves office.

15 thoughts on “What is Trump’s strategy in contesting the election?”

  1. I’ll admit that I do suspect outcome-altering levels of shenanigans (beyond the usual votes by the ineligible, I mean.) I’d probably bet 1K on it, but not 10K, at reasonable odds.

    This is one reason why I think it’s good to have concrete actions like oaths taken and votes by the College instead of vague ideas about the will of the people. I guess this is another way of saying I prefer the mediating structures of republics and monarchies to those of purer democracies. If it turns out that Biden _shouldn’t_ have been the president but was inaugurated anyway, it will be unfair in some sense but won’t affect the fact he actually _is_ the president.

  2. What DSM said, and also, he would have been legally inaugurated, even if as the result of a “mistake”. So his presidential actions would hold force. The tougher question would be, I think, how to “fix” the situation going forward.

  3. What we hear about voter fraud is obviously a hoax, but there is a substantial group of people – QAnon and the like – who will continue to believe it. After Trump leaves office, he will continue to troll the nation with these nutcases cheering him on. Of course it will be humiliating for him to be in that position, but he will most likely promise to run for president in 2024. That will have a greater effect on the GOP than on the Dems, because there will be a lot of those Trump followers will not vote for anyone else. Other Republicans, however, would prefer to get back to something more like Republican Classic (exemplified by Reagan), as quite a few of them have been working with the media to show – with extensive documentation – how Trump repeatedly shot himself in the foot with this piss-poor performance and belligerent stance towards a good many Americans. The ones who will be most vulnerable to his trolling will surely be not only those anti-Trump Republicans or the media, but the party at large. The GOP will have to find a way to accommodate him. The Dems can just file him away with the other shrill voices such as Rush, Hannity, etc. The GOP and QUanon could very well meld into a single entity. The future doesn’t look very bright.

  4. QUOTE: Despite zero evidence that so much as a single vote was interfered with, Democrats peddled the hoax that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to elect Trump.

    “We found irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement, directly refuting President Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that Russian interference was a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats. Although the Senate and other government investigations didn’t yield proof of collusion, there was enough evidence to initiate “legal” investigations and yielded a number of troubling outcomes.

    QUOTE: I’m sure there was cheating in the election. Humans were involved, and humans cheat.
    It appears there was voter fraud in Pennsylvania by a registered Republican signing an application for an absentee ballot in the name of his deceased mother during the 2020 election . As well, prosecutors in North Carolina filed felony charges against a Republican political operative accused of ballot tampering in a congressional election in 2018.

    QUOTE: Still, credible claims of voter fraud must be investigated, and, if found, new measures must be put in place to make sure things are fair.

    Maybe when Sidney Powell releases the Kraken we’ll see significant evidence of cheating. Thus far, all state election officials have declared there was no widespread voter fraud, Justice Department investors indicated they couldn’t find any evidence of voter fraud and even a top committee made up of officials from the Trump Administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and its election partners issued a statement calling the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.”

    As an aside, it was interesting that Justice Department prosecutors were authorized to conduct investigations PRIOR to election results being certified. This was so unprecedented that the Justice Department’s elections crime chief resigned in protest. He stated, “Having familiarized myself with the new policy and its ramifications, and in accord with the best tradition of the John C. Keeney Award for Exceptional Integrity and Professionalism (my most cherished Departmental recognition), I must regretfully resign from my role as Director of the Election Crimes Branch.”

    QUOTE: Which raises an interesting question. What if Biden is inaugurated and then we determine, five months later, that he didn’t really win?

    Although there should be enough “checks” within the current system to prevent this from occurring, it probably wouldn’t hurt to have Congress create new legislation to address such a “what if” scenario. Yet, this raises another interesting question. Since several government investigations verified Intelligence reports that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, what if further investigation uncovered tangible evidence of foreign malfeasance that changed the election outcome. What would happen? I doubt this would occur but it would be interesting to see how this might be addressed.

        1. As the expression goes…“If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.”

          1. While you’re pounding and yelling, you might wanna show your fangs and foam at the mouth just to let them know how serious you are.

            1. Indeed, that makes for an entertaining show. Unfortunately, after the show is over…they still don’t have any facts or law! 😉

  5. I think maybe he’s trying to start a new religion. Most of his conservative christian die hards have pretty much given up christ. I propose a liturgy for the new religion.

    On the night of his election betrayal, the savior took a Big Mac into his tiny and orange spray tanned hands, lifted it up and said, “this is my body given up for you.”

    I also suggest making a monstrance that can hold a big mac. On every election day, a priest can make a prayer over a big mac, they can mount the big mac in a monstrance, and then the faithful can have a parade. I propose calling it a corpus trumpi parade.

    1. A new religion of that kind would certainly provide potential employment for such screwball lawyers as Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. They could be priests. Whatever these people do, Trump’s religion – metaphorically speaking – will continue to be a thorn in the side of the GOP.

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