Trump court cases

America continues its descent into banana republic territory under the rule of a tinpot dictator who refuses to give up power, even though voters, courts of every level, and even his own political appointees have told him and the world that he lost. Donald Trump, the only person ever to have lost the popular vote twice, has lost some 50 court cases at state and federal level in his efforts to cheat his way to a second term. His latest attempt at a coup is to demand that Republican legislatures in states that he lost refuse to honour the will of the voters and instead chose electors who will vote for him.

For those unfamiliar, the US does not elect presidents by popular vote. Instead, individual states choose from electors nominated by the candidates.

Usually, the entire slate picked by the candidate who wins a state is sent by the state legislature to vote at the Electoral College. This is why Trump, who got three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton, won the 2016 election. Despite being thrashed in some states, he edged out narrow wins in a vast majority, easily putting him past the finish line. That formula failed this time, so Trump and the Republican Party turned to the courts. But at the risk of losing their legal licences for lying in court, not one of his lawyers repeated any of the allegations they made in public speeches and on TV. In most cases, they did not even allege any impropriety. They did not even allege fraud. The courts promptly threw out the cases.

But Trump supporters still thought the Supreme Court, where six judges of the nine judges were appointed by Republicans, including three by Trump, would rule in their favour anyway. That did not happen. After the SC threw out Trump’s case, the head of the Texas Republican Party, a literal war criminal named Allen West, suggested that like-minded states should break away from the US. Although the Electoral College confirmed Joe Biden’s win on Monday, the language of Trump and the Republican Party and violence in the streets suggest we are still in for trouble.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2020.

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