WHAT’S THE STORY?

ANYONE who hoped that President Donald Trump was going to concede that he has lost the election to president-elect Joe Biden will have had their hopes well and truly dashed yesterday.

The president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani gave a rambling press conference yesterday, pledging lawsuits against the results in states such as Michigan, Arizona, Georgia and now New Mexico.

“It’s enough to overturn the result,” Giuliani claimed, even though numerous claims that he made have already been debunked.

“We can’t allow these crooks to steal an election from the American people,” he added, saying he will produce the evidence in court and accusing the media of “pathological hatred” of Trump.

Giuliani’s colleague Sidney Powell then claimed that software produced in “Communist countries” had flipped votes from Trump to Biden across the USA.

Completely bonkers, of course, but the problem is that so many millions of people in the USA are falling for this assault on democracy.

WHAT CAN TRUMP DO?

IT was always likely that Trump would not go quietly from the White House if he was defeated by Joe Biden. Since it became clear in the first week of November that he had indeed been beaten, Trump has given every indication that he will contest the result to the bitter end, meaning that his various lawsuits alleging electoral fraud will have to go the US Supreme Court.

Following his latest sacking of the US Government’s top official in charge of electoral security, Chris Krebs, plus the demonstrations by his supporters, there are many who doubt whether Trump will go at all.

Krebs said the election had been secure and that contradicted Trump’s line that ballot fraud was widespread. Trump fired him via Twitter.

IS THERE ANY BASIS FOR HIS CASE?

ABSOLUTELY not. Only one state has been able to discover a problem with the counting of votes. After a recount by hand, before the final result was announced last night, Georgia officials have admitted that hundreds of votes were not counted for technical reasons and two-thirds of these would have gone to Trump, thereby reducing Biden’s majority in the State of five million voters from 14,000 to 12,400.

The reality is that Trump has been beaten fairly and soundly with Biden’s likely Electoral College total set to be 306 – the same number that Trump achieved four years ago and which he acclaimed then as a landslide.

Other lawsuits have already been rejected or are doomed to failure. It is clear that Trump’s main ploy now is to drag out the whole process beyond the deadline for finalisation. One theory is that if he can manage to confuse the outcomes then various Republican legislatures will impose pro-Trump electors into the Electoral College, which will meet to formally elect the new president. It is extremely rare but not unheard of for electors to differ from the votes in their states. It is not expected to happen this time, which would leave Trump with only one recourse and that is again to the Supreme Court which, don’t forget, he has packed with conservative appointees.

COULD HE MOUNT A COUP?

IT has been rumoured stateside, but the US Constitution has enough safeguards to ensure that the democratic will of the people will eventually take effect. For instance, unless the Supreme Court rules in favour of Trump, and it almost certainly will not, then the terms of office of Trump and his vice president Mike Pence will definitely end at 12pm on January 20.

Former vice president Biden should at that point be inaugurated as president along with new vice president Kamala Harris, but if Trump is still taking court action and the result is delayed, House speaker Nancy Pelosi will temporarily become president.

Trump’s failure to concede the election and his subsequent actions means that the normal transition period from one presidency to the next just is not happening at the moment.

WHY IS TRUMP REFUSING TO ACCEPT REALITY?

APART from his own problem of never wanting to be seen as a loser, Trump is probably playing a long game here. By the time of the next election in 2024 he will be 78, which is exactly the age that Biden becomes today.

He clearly hopes that by casting doubt on the results in this election that he will be able to say to his support that he was cheated, which in turn will give him a platform to begin campaigning for 2024. Trump may go, but Trumpism is very much alive and it may be that one of his children will take up the cause. Much will depend on the attitude of law enforcement officers across the USA who have a list of allegations to investigate. There’s also the pressing matter of the numerous civil lawsuits against him which technically can recommence at one minute past noon on January 20.