Donald Trump and his allies go into panic mode as it all slips away from them
In a December 2015 interview with the Washington Post, then-candidate Donald Trump boasted, “I’ve been winning all my life… My whole life is about winning. I always win.” As Trump is now losing his reelection bid to Joe Biden, who is amassing more votes than any candidate in history, he doesn’t even have a winning strategy for exiting gracefully. Instead, Trump and his followers are discovering new ways to humiliate themselves as Trumpism begins circling the drain.
Eric Trump retweeted a video yesterday afternoon (originally from a Twitter account that has since been suspended), warning: “Burning 80 Trump Ballots” in Virginia. As you might guess, the whole thing is fake news. Although the video appears to show an individual setting a bag of Virginia Beach ballots on fire, these ballots lack official bar code markings and are merely sample ballots, according to city investigators. Even more pathetic, this lame conspiracy theory was already debunked on Tuesday—but that didn’t stop Trump’s hopelessly idiotic son from confidently trying to promote it on Wednesday.
With Arizona going blue, hundreds of desperate Trump voters have tried conjuring up a weird new Sharpiegate scandal. Their groundless claim is that poll workers instructed them (and only them, apparently) to use Sharpies instead of regular pens to vote, invalidating their ballots. However, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs assured the public yesterday that ballots with Sharpies don’t get invalidated. Not only that, but the Maricopa County Elections Department had already posted a video on October 24 showing voters how to use Sharpies when completing ballots.
Finally, last night, Christian televangelist and pastor Paula White-Cain, who has served as Trump’s failed spiritual advisor, led an over-the-top prayer service aimed at ensuring a Trump reelection victory through the shameless weaponization of religion. The event kicked off with an embarrassing break in momentum, as the performers realized the wrong song was cued in the audience’s teleprompter. White-Cain’s off-the-rails tirade was the fiery highlight of the nearly three hour service, which featured people wandering the stage without masks.
After shouting phrases like “And strike!” countless times while gesticulating wildly, White-Cain warned of an army of angels being released to save Trump. “The angels are coming here in the name of Jesus from Africa!” she cried. She then called on these “angelic reinforcements” to expose people working “at high levels” with “demonic confederacies and secrecies” who are allegedly illegally interfering with a Trump win in six states’ voter tallies.
None of these ridiculous efforts will help Trump secure a single additional vote for his reelection. Instead, they are embarrassing signs of a campaign that is flailing as it discovers what it means to lose bigly. President Biden will serve America with honesty, empathy, competence, and sound judgment, and his first day in the Oval Office can’t come soon enough.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month