An obsession with Trump that has a cost for democracy

“Deep State.” “Fraud and theft.” “Conspiracy”. “Handling”. “Corruption”. “Fraud”. “Concealment”.

But the main message he clearly wanted to convey to the public was this: he is not a loser, regardless of the outcome of the 2020 election.

There was dark forces working to thwart him.

And if his party loses this fall’s midterm elections, he suggested, that wouldn’t be an honest result either.

Trump’s prime-time speech from the East Room of the White House was an astonishing spectacle, featuring a president hell-bent on convincing the country that its elections cannot be trusted, at least not the ones in which he or his allies fail.

He cited selectively declassified documents to make sensational claims about the vulnerabilities of the electoral system, although nothing he revealed demonstrated that the results had actually changed.

This exercise revealed the extent to which Trump, in his second term, has obsessed with reopen the debate about the 2020 elections and find ways to sow doubt about the 2026 elections.

In the 18 months since his return to office, he has placed electoral deniers in key positions, he has tried to change the rules to make it more difficult to vote, confiscated electoral records in an attempt to prove his conspiracy theories and purged officials who investigated his efforts to overturn his election defeat six years ago.

“He looks a little like Captain Ahab from ‘Moby Dick,'” said Trevor Potter, former Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission.

«He is obsessed with his claim that he did not lose the 2020 election. So-called experts may say that he does not like to lose, that he will never admit to having lost anything. But it is evident that it has become a important part of your psyche and, in a way, an important part of this administration.

In a way, according to people close to him, Trump’s obsession with rewriting the history of 2020 seeks comfort the wounded ego of a man who, by nature, refuses to admit that he has lost something.

He has made it a litmus test for anyone who works for him to accept, or at least not contradict, the lie that he won then, not Joe Biden.

Trump has authorized investigations to review many of his previously debunked claims, investigations that apparently seek not to trace the facts, but rather to find evidence to support his own unfounded certainties.

It is difficult to imagine that he would accept research that concludes that he lost fairly.

While part of this involves looking back, it also involves looking forward.

With Trump deeply unpopular, according to polls —only 37% approve of his management in the latest Washington Post-Ipsos poll—his party faces a possible resounding defeat in the November congressional elections.

Trump therefore seems hell-bent on laying the groundwork so that, at a minimum, a defeat can be justified and, as his critics fear, at most, direct intervention to change the results can be justified.

“It is a common tactic to sow doubt about electoral rules when many populist authoritarians feel threatened by unpopularity at the polls or if the results declare them losers,” said Pippa Norris, a professor of political science at Harvard University for three decades and founding director of the Electoral Integrity Project.

“In fact, it has been a leitmotif that the president has used for more than a decade.”

Trump’s allies insist that he has well-founded reasons for his electoral witch hunt, that Democrats, the media, career officials and foreign governments had reasons to try to prevent him from winning a second term and then cover their tracks.

They claim that a selfish ruling class is protecting its own power and eager to topple a disruptive outsider like Trump.

“The president strongly believes that he was the victim of an injustice in the 2020 election,” said Christopher Ruddy, his friend and CEO of Newsmax Media, “and I think he is motivated by two reasons:

obtain vindication and prevent future electoral irregularities.”

But some Republicans would like Trump to turn the page, believing the issue does not benefit him politically in a campaign season when voters are focused on the cost of living and other issues of personal concern.

An Economist-YouGov poll conducted last month found that Trump has convinced 50% of Republicans that the 2020 election was fraudulent, but this belief is more strongly held among the president’s supporters than among the general electorate.

While 66% of Republicans who identify as MAGA followers share this opinion, only 32% of other Republicans and just 23% of independents share it.

Trump’s repeated forays into election denial during this term also reflect the change in his inner circle.

While there were influential voices in his first term who told him that his claims of election fraud were not true, most notably William Barr, then attorney general, this time Trump is surrounded by advisers who They either support him or remain silent.

“It’s clear that no one in the White House can say no to him; there’s no sane person in the room,” said former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, a Virginia Republican and longtime Trump critic.

“They won’t tell you, ‘Mr. President, you lost the damn election. Why are we doing this again?'”

In fact, aspiring administration officials at the beginning of this term were asked directly during job interviews whether they believed Trump had won the 2020 election.

Those who responded negatively were generally not well received.

Instead, Democrats have now persisted in asking the same question during confirmation hearings for Trump nominees, making it difficult for them to find an answer under oath that don’t anger the president.

“Do you deny that Joe Biden won the 2020 election?” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., asked Jay Clayton, the president’s nominee for director of national intelligence, during a hearing this week.

“Senator, I do not deny the election,” Clayton responded.

“Joe Biden was certified as president of the United States.”

Democrats noted the use of the word “certified,” as opposed to “elected” or “winner.”

The latter has become an excuse for Trump’s nominees.

Not even the president denies that Biden was certified; it simply states that it shouldn’t have beeno.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., tried to corner Clayton.

“Who won the 2020 election?” he asked directly.

“I’ve already answered it,” Clayton said. “I have already answered it.”

“Isn’t it humiliating not to be able to answer this question, to have to play along with the president’s illusions?” Ossoff responded.

Trump’s obsession with the 2020 election was evident in his speech Thursday night.

While hurling accusations of Chinese cyberattacks, illegally registered voters and cover-ups, Trump referred seven times to the 2020 election he lost, though without explicitly claiming to have won.

He did not express any concerns about the validity of the 2016 or 2024 elections, which he did win.

And while he suggested that China intervened in the election six years ago because “it wanted me to lose,” he did not mention Russia’s intervention four years earlier on his behalf.

He used the words “China” or “Chinese” twenty times and mentioned Russia only once, as part of a list of nations capable of hacking voting machines.

Indeed, U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that while China made nascent efforts to influence American public opinion during the 2020 election, it largely stood by while Russia waged a broad and aggressive campaign to help Trump win in 2016.

With less than 16 weeks until the next election, the crucial question is what direction Trump will take.

He used his speech to announce that he has ordered the FBI and other agencies to investigate election interference.

He also again pressured Congress to pass a law requiring proof of citizenship to register and a photo ID to vote.

However, Senate Republicans have repeatedly made clear to him that They don’t have enough votes for approval.

It is not unreasonable to think that Trump could take action if the elections do not go as he hopes.

In an interview with The New York Times In January, Trump regretted not having listened to his advisers, who urged him to order the National guard to confiscate voting machines in the key states he lost in 2020.

“Our country has suffered immense damage,” he declared Thursday night.

“Our elections were exposed to fraud and theft, and the trust of the American people was lost. This cannot continue.”

The question many Americans will ask will be: who to trust?