President Donald Trump might be under the illusion that there is still a chance he might win, but even suspecting this would be to attribute too much innocence to Donald. He does not deserve our sympathy, or our pity.
Tradition dictates that the losing candidate deliver a speech to concede defeat. Trump has so far not conceded to Joe Biden; though, his refusal to do this is not unexpected. In a July interview, he had said, “”I’m not a good loser. I don’t like to lose.”, then at an informal press gathering on election night, “Winning is easy, losing is never easy. Not for me, it is not.” Also, several times before the election, Trump had refused to commit himself to a peaceful transfer of power.
True, losing is hard. Candidates who lose an election feel that countless hours of campaigning have come to nothing and that they have let down the people who showed support. But Trump is a megalomaniac for whom the sole purpose of the election was self-aggrandizement and hanging onto power.
Trump doesn’t have to concede if he doesn’t want to. According to the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, the candidate with the most electoral votes becomes president at noon on Jan. 20. At 290 electoral votes, Biden is far ahead of Trump’s 232. Still, Trump must understand that nothing good will come out of frivolous, unsupportable lawsuits. If anything, electoral integrity would be undermined.
It is apparent that Trump is ruined by a loss that revealed him as inadequate. Public failure is one of the things narcissists are insecure about. Faced with a failure, a typical narcissist’s response is to blame external factors, minimize the failure’s importance and disparage the winner. By alleging widespread voter fraud (without evidence), keeping himself away from the press after the defeat and claiming that Democrats had stolen the election from him, he has done just that.
In a lighter vein, when Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg was asked in February what would happen if Trump refuses to leave the White House, he replied, “I guess if he’s willing to do chores, we can work something out.” The clock’s ticking while Joe, Kamala, Trump and Pence work something out.
Sidenote:
Officially, the Congress will convene on January 6th next year to count the electoral votes and certify the winner of the 2020 US Elections.
This editorial titled ‘Time’s Up For Trump: On Trump’s Refusal To Concede‘ has been written by Tushar Kohli and Khushi Singh and represent the collective view of the Editorial Team
