If Donald Trump really gave a damn about the America he swore an oath to serve, he would concede defeat in the election he lost on Nov. 3 and smooth the way for transition for a new president elected by the voters, along with exactly the same number of electoral votes he received four years ago.
But the only thing Trump cares about is himself and allegiance to an outsized ego and corrupt pattern that has pushed America’s democracy too close to a precipice and continues to threaten its very existence.
His refusal to accept the obvious places America’s security in jeopardy while the Americans who rejoiced in his defeat a week ago now worry about what it will take to bring an end to his tyranny and trauma that threatens us all.
Trump’s legal team keeps filing senseless lawsuits claiming voter fraud that does not exist. Judges keep throwing them out and new lawsuits, like a Trump bad check, keep coming back. After 12 days of legal attempts, two of Trump’s lawsuits have quit in disgust with their client and not even one vote has been overturned.
“The Trump legal team does not seem to have identified any kind of global litigation strategy that has any prospect of changing the outcome of the election, and all of the court filings to date underscore that — as do all of the court rulings that have been issued to date,” Robert Kelner, a Republican lawyer who chairs the election and political law practice group at Covington & Burling, an international law firm based in Washington, told The Washington Post.
Reports the Post:
Part of the problem is that Trump’s approach has been backward: Declare crimes first, then look for proof afterward.
Again and again, the president or his allies said they’d found evidence that would stun the public and swing the election.
But, when Trump and his team revealed that evidence, it often was far less than they had promised. A “dead” voter turned out to be alive. “Thousands” of problematic ballots turned out to be one. Election-changing problems turned out to involve a few dozen, or a few hundred, ballots.
In other words, Trump lied, which is about the only thing he does with any consistency.
A Trump aide admits Trump has no “grand strategy” in his post-election delaying tactics. He “is simply trying to survive from one news cycle to the next.” That another familiar Trump game: Create new controversies and watch it play out.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd compares Trump to the fictional charter of has-been star of Norma Desmond in the classic film, Sunset Boulevard.
“In ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ Max the butler and a camera crew conspire to make the demented silent film star believe she’s getting her close-up when she’s actually just being lured down the staircase to answer for her sins,” Dowd writes in her column this Sunday. “The Republicans enabling Trump’s delusion are like the camera crew, filming a scene with the disintegrating diva that is never going to be seen.”
“Trump should move on and stick to what he knows best: promoting himself. Like Norma Desmond, he should give in to the fantasy of his life that he is so devoted to and leave the rest of us to live in the cold, cruel, unforgiving, inconvenient reality,” she continues. “Mr. DeMille just called, Mr. President. He says he’s ready for your close-up. Keep your pancake makeup on and step on out of the house now. The cameras will be waiting.”
Trump, who once wanted to be a Hollywood producer and considered attending U.S.C. film school, never made the pivot to being a politician. He got elected because he played a competent boss and wily megabillionaire on a reality TV show — pretty good acting now that we know he is neither — and he has stayed a performance artist and a ratings-obsessed showman.
The president, who has never shown much interest in governing, has finally dropped all pretense to focus on the core tenets of the Trump Doctrine: himself, cable news, Twitter, self-pity, and caterwauling about perceived slights.
Trump’s defeat at the hands of America’s voters is a fitting end to a failed reality TV character who turned the presidency into his own crappy TV show.
Your show is canceled because of failed ratings, Mr. Trump. Time to exit, stage right.
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