Well, it is actually, but that’s not how you spell it. The Nile. (Not the point, of course). I think we can probably all agree that President Trump is in denial. In Trump’s case, it is probably Denial, capital D, because, in this particular instance, he is in extreme denial. In fact, it should be DENIAL (ALL CAPS), because, among other things, President Trump is loud. He doesn’t say; he shouts. He doesn’t have opinions; he knows. And, unfortunately for Trump, and therefore the rest of us, President Trump is in denial because what he “knows” is wrong. He lost the election, but he just doesn’t seem to know it yet. It’s understandable. The first stage of grief is shock. (I was shocked, too, but not that Trump lost. I was shocked–and saddened–that he got so many votes!)
Like many of the things Trump has believed in the past, as evidenced by things he has said, things he has done (and not done), and, of course, things he has tweeted, President Trump is simply in the cycle of big, fat grief. The second stage of grief after shock is, you guessed it: denial. Poor Trump. What he has said. What he has done. What he has tweeted. The problem he is wrong, no two ways about it. There are many, many other cases where Trump has been wrong, too.
Let’s deconstruct my claim, particularly my sub-point: what he has said, what he has done, and what he has tweeted. For instance, declaring victory in the election, starting with the first and most glaring, when he said that he won in Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia*. Facts: He lost in Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia. On Friday, his campaign withdrew the claims of voter fraud in Arizona. *Also on Friday the 13th, the Georgia election was called for Biden at last, only 9 days after the longest, slowest, most painful election ever. (An unlucky day for Trump, to be sure.) Trump declared that he was the winner of the National election and that he has been a victim of voter fraud. He is not a victim of voter fraud. He has not been robbed of his presidency. He lost.
What he has DONE: Since the election, President Trump and his team have filed multiple law suits alleging fraud, many of which have already been resolved (and quickly), because there is no evidence of election fraud. Our delusional President will push this absurd claim as long as he possibly can, and he has already thanked the Supreme Court in advance. That’s scary. As Trump continues to deny the legitimacy of our country’s choice, President-Elect Joe Biden, Trump’s actions and his denial place us in a very precarious place. By denying Gentle Joe critical information he needs for a transition to the White house, Trump is placing our country in a terrible position—as far as our global strength and safety are concerned. The United States is now vulnerable to foreign countries around the globe should they decide to attack us, for whatever reason (Price of oil? Price of Starbucks?). Not to mention what his failure to allow a smooth transition is doing for the reputation of this country. In his failure to concede, Trump is hurting this country. He is an embarrassment, and he makes us a laughingstock—or, at the very least, himself.
Finally, what he has tweeted. I don’t have twitter myself. I intend to, maybe, but it seems like it takes too much energy and I simply don’t have any energy to spare. I have some health conditions which require I take naps regularly. Twitter would interfere with my naps. During the election, Trump made (and tweeted) multiple false statements about states he had “won.” Now that’s what I call fake news. To be fair, this was a nail bitingly close election, for days, at least as far as the popular vote went, but ultimately Trump was blown out by the electoral college votes, as well as the popular vote that went to Biden, and in record setting numbers. Trump got 70.7 million votes. That’s a lot. Biden got 75 million votes, which is a lot more. In other words, people liked Biden more, or hated Trump more, or some combination of the two. Doesn’t matter. Biden won. How humiliated President Trump must be feeling now, only perpetuating his grief (the anger phase in particular). In his now infamous tweet, Trump stated, “We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead.” Additionally, our losing President tweeted, “We hereby claim the State of Michigan…” etc. As Trevor Noah jokes, “saying you hereby claim something, trying to make it official sounding, doesn’t actually make it official.” By the end of the day, even though Michigan was very close, the counts showed a win for Biden, albeit by a small margin. “The Michigan race was called for Biden about 6 p.m., as he led the president 50.3% to 48.1% with 99% of precincts reporting — a difference of about 120,000 votes.” In the end, after Biden finished the Michigan win with 290 electoral college votes, the race was done. Trump had 232. Even high school math tells me that 290 is a bigger number than 232. Perhaps Trump didn’t take high school math? Votes continued. Ultimately, after Georgia went to Biden, Biden’s win went to Biden’s smash with 306 electoral votes. Mic drop.
The third stage of grief is anger and guilt. It is hard to know when Trump will move into this stage, because he is an angry person generally. He yells, he pushes, he mocks. I don’t know exactly how we can tell if he is still in the anger/guilt stage because he seems angry quite a lot of time. I also can’t imagine Trump ever having any guilt over pretty much anything, since he refuses to take any form of responsibility for anything. Immigrant children separated from their parents? Nope, their fault for trying to sneak into the country. Deaths due to Corona virus? Nah, China’s fault. I’m quite sure Trump has anger, in this third stage stuff, but I truly doubt his ability to even feel guilt. Guilt would require him to admit any wrongdoing on his part, and since he’s the best at everything, ever, and does a terrific job at everything he does, that doesn’t seem likely. (His words, not mine, of course).
Lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada have already been thrown out in the courts, with some votes set aside in Pennsylvania. In the Pennsylvania ruling, even if all of the disputed votes went to Trump, the results would not change. Even though the Pennsylvania part of the election was close, it wasn’t, um, that close. 49.99% for Biden, ballots for Trump with 49%. It’s a difference that is not big enough to flip the state. Even though it’s only a slight difference in percentage, it’s a big difference in individual votes cast. (Which still matters, even though the Trump team and Trump himself don’t seem particularly committed to the “every vote matters” mentality, a cornerstone of our democracy.) Also on Friday the 13th, the Trump campaign dropped the case in Arizona’s Maricopa county. Like Pennsylvania, the disputed votes would not be enough to change the result because sweet Joe’s lead is simply too big. Even Trump’s legal team can do the math. Perhaps dropping this Arizona suit is the start of chipping away at the President’s denial.
It does seem possible that Trump has moved on to the despair/depression stage (stage four of grief) since “bunker boy” has been mostly incommunicado since the election ended. His first formal public appearance was on Veterans’ Day on Wednesday, November 11, a full week after the election. For a man like Trump, business mogul, proud narcissist and Presidential egomaniac, perhaps it has all been just too much to bear. I can cross my fingers and hope, only hope, that he is moving into acceptance soon. Unfortunately, I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as we move further into what appears to be a possible coup rather than the acceptance phase. (More than two weeks after the election, he still hasn’t conceded as of this writing, Sunday, 11/15/2020.)
Sadly, Trump’s coming to terms seems unlikely, as all the signs point toward a coup rather than acceptance. Even before this post-election phase, Trump has never had a great record for staffing his administration. He has had an 86% turn over within his staff, not even counting a Cabinet that looks more like a game of musical chairs than a solid support for his administration….but this time, the turnover is different. This isn’t just one resignation here or a firing there. This is a massive overhaul just 6 weeks before Biden is to take office. Forbes writes that there have been at least 9 changes in the Trump administration, just since the election! Not all of the changes have been firings; some have been resignations. Some have been coerced resignations; some have been based on principles. Still, this turnover is not good. It looks more like a coup than an end to a term. I’m all about cleaning house and following Mari Kondo’s Magic of Tyding Up, but in this context it’s a lot more alarming because this massive cleanup is in the White House, instead of my house. (Great book, by the way).
I know Trump loves to say his signature line, but about whom, exactly, are we talking?*
*I started to label each of these firings and resignations as not scary, scary, or really scary, but instead of going individually, can we just agree, it’s all scary, especially as a whole, and especially when it happens just before the January inauguration? (Thanks for agreeing.)
1. Fired: Defense Secretary, Mark Esper.
2. Fired: Defense Department Chief of Staff, Jen Stuart.
3. Fired: Undersecretary of Defense, Joseph Kernan.
4. Fired: Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
5. Fired: Bonne Glick, the deputy administrator of the U.S. agency for International Development
6. Fired: Neil Chatterjee, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (I think he got fired and moved around).
7. Fired: Michael Kuperberberg, scientist overseeing “US Change Research Program”
And those are just the seven staff members who were ousted. It’s been a couple days since I checked, so there could be more now. Phew! In addition to Trump’s bloody purge, there have been at least two recent resignations.
- In the last week of October, “Ronald Sanders, chairman of the Federal Salary Council (FSC), who formally resigned from his position Monday, citing objections to an executive order issued by President. The order calls for the removal of firing protections usually afforded to certain federal employees.” (Newsweek)
“However, it is clear that its stated purpose not withstanding, the Executive Order is nothing more than a smokescreen for what is clearly an attempt to require the political loyalty of those who advise the President, or failing that, to enable their removal with little if any due process,” Sanders continued.
Sanders in Newsweek, 10/26/2020
2. Department of Justice’s election crime branch, Richard Pilger, also resigned. Pilger’s push back was against the memo to investigate the Trump/Biden election. (It is policy not to interfere with elections and investigations until all votes are counted.) So, Pilger resigned. And now, finally, all the votes have been counted.
On November 7, more than one week ago, an article in “Politicus USA” said: “Ari Fleischer is on Fox saying people should give the president days, if necessary, to absorb the emotional aspect of his loss before demanding a concession.” Whether or not you agree with Fleischer, it has been days. Lots of them, in fact. In 2016, Hilary Clinton gave her concession speech the morning after the election. President Trump has been quiet, almost invisible, since the election was called, and there has been no concession speech given and no recognition that he has, in fact, lost. 306 electoral votes for Biden. 232 for Trump. It’s over; it’s done. Time for the moving van, Donald Trump. Time for acceptance.