The Two Reasons Why Donald Trump Still Refuses to Concede His Defeat to Joe Biden
Psychology and strategy come into play here.
The result of the U.S. presidential election is known since November 7, 2020. Joe Biden is the next President of the United States. Joe Biden won this victory honestly after the counting of the votes. No evidence of fraud could be brought.
The vast majority of the world’s heads of state have already congratulated the man who will become the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021.
However, one man still refuses to face the obvious. This man is Donald Trump. In the history of American politics, there has never been a time in history of American politics when a losing candidate in the presidential election did not concede defeat.
Donald Trump still refuses to concede defeat
There is nothing obligatory about conceding defeat, but it is a classy gesture that serves the loser as well as the winner. In 2008, John McCain made a concession speech that will forever be remembered. He wished Barack Obama the best of luck and highlighted the formidable challenges he would face.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump is not one of the heroes who have made up a very rich American history.
No wonder, given his behavior during his four years in the White House, that Donald Trump does not like to respect rules and traditions. In a way, this makes sense, because Donald Trump respects nothing and no one but himself.
Donald Trump has not spoken in public since the announcement of Joe Biden’s victory.
The time seems long, and this only delays the inevitable: his defeat against Joe Biden. While Joe Biden and Kamala Harris decided to move forward and enter the transition period, the Trump administration confirmed that nothing would be made available to the Biden administration in the immediate future.
Top Republican in Congress Mitch McConnell supports Donald Trump
Within the GOP, the most influential members have been quite rare to take an official stand. Most have decided to remain silent so far. Only four GOP Senators have officially congratulated Joe Biden. They are Susan Collins (Maine), Mitt Romney (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Ben Sasse (Nebraska).
As Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell is the top Republican in Congress. Had he remained silent over the weekend, he finally gave his support to Donald Trump on Monday, November 9, 2020.
Mitch McConnell explained that Donald Trump was “100 percent within his rights” in deciding to challenge the election result. Behind the scenes, some explain that Mitch McConnell will support Donald Trump as long as his actions are within the law.
For Mitch McConnell, the announcement of Joe Biden’s victory is premature:
“President Trump is 100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options. Let’s not have any lectures about how the president should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election.”
The democratic process, which includes the possibility of appeal, must continue to take its course.
Democrats call on Republicans to respect democracy
On the Democratic side, all this is considered extremely dangerous, as Senator Chuck Schumer, who is the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, explained:
“Joe Biden won this election fair and square. Mr Trump’s claims are extremely dangerous, extremely poisonous to our democracy.”
The real problem lies precisely in the credibility of American democracy.
In doing so, Donald Trump is simply attacking American democracy. Given the spectacle he has offered us for the past four years, this is not surprising. More worrisome, however, is that Republicans are helping him to do so now.
For Chuck Schumer, the Republicans should not give oxygen to his desperate attempt to protest:
“Republican leaders must unequivocally condemn the president’s rhetoric and work to ensure the peaceful transfer of power.”
This is obviously not the path it takes.
Camp Trump will multiply complaints in the swing states
Although Republicans have not been able to prove any electoral fraud so far, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani explained that several complaints will be filed in federal courts in different states.
This concerns most of the swing states where the final result was a few thousand votes between Joe Biden and Donald Trump: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan, and Arizona.
Donation campaigns were also launched to finance the recounts requested by Camp Trump in many states.
In addition to these recounts and announcements of multiple lawsuits, William Barr has recently asked prosecutors to investigate irregularities committed during the vote even though there is a glaring lack of evidence.
As Attorney General of the United States within the Trump administration, William Barr comes to support Donald Trump in his harmful move for American democracy. In the eyes of the whole world, Donald Trump looks like a bad loser who refuses to admit defeat.
On reflection, I can see two reasons why Donald Trump has locked himself into this strategy of conspiracy theories carried by massive frauds that he cannot prove.
Donald Trump is psychologically unable to accept being the loser
The first is psychological. In her book “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man”, Mary Trump helps us to better understand her uncle’s psychology. Donald Trump is described as someone who divides the world into two categories: winners and losers.
Donald Trump cannot bear to be in the category of the losers. Defeat horrifies Donald Trump who does not know how to handle it.
Yet defeat is a part of life. Nothing is humiliating about losing a presidential election and still getting nearly 71 million votes. Half of all Americans still voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Donald Trump could see the positive, accept his defeat, learn from it, and move forward to rise stronger.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump is not one of the men who can handle these situations. He, therefore, decides to invent an alternative reality that will help him to better accept the situation. By thinking that his defeat was due to a conspiracy to harm him, Donald Trump will be able to justify himself throughout the years to come.
Donald Trump will remain convinced that he didn’t lose, but that he was robbed.
Donald Trump seeks to keep his fan base loyal and united
The second reason why Donald Trump has been acting this way for several days may also be political. Donald Trump has seen that his ideas, Trumpism, remain extremely popular in the United States. Indeed, he obtained nearly 71 million votes.
Under these conditions, Donald Trump wants to continue to carry weight in the future. This implies keeping his base as loyal as possible.
By inventing a conspiracy theory and then getting the majority of his supporters to adhere to it, Donald Trump is implementing a strategy that is as old as the world: it’s you and me against the rest of the world. The strategy of the common enemy, the Democratic and elite establishment, must serve his plans.
All supporters of Donald Trump will therefore remain convinced in the long run that they have been robbed of the 2020 presidential election. They will remain loyal to the leader whom they will judge to have been robbed as well.
Conclusion
The big question now is why Donald Trump is trying to do this. Does he have the ambition to weigh in over the next four years to try his luck again in 2024? Is he preparing the ground so that a member of his family, Donald Trump Jr. for example, can carry the ideas of Trumpism again in 4 years?
Impossible to say for the moment, but the current situation obviously raises questions and allows us to envisage all kinds of scenarios.
In the meantime, Donald Trump’s attitude is delaying the transfer of power to the Joe Biden administration, at a time when the United States is facing an extremely difficult economic situation and the second wave of coronavirus that promises to be very violent.
The current behavior of President Donald Trump remains totally irresponsible.
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