Ever since the election results have turned against President Trump’s chances of reelection, he has attempted to undermine the election by making false claims about the presidency being stolen from him through major voter fraud by Democrats. This effort started several months ago, in April, when President Trump spoke of more than 150 claims about fraudulent ballots and the dangers of mail in voting.
On the night of Election Day, when the votes appeared to be in President Trump’s favor, he prematurely announced his victory and thanked Americans for electing him for a second term. Several tweets also went out that night including: “I will be making a statement tonight. A big WIN!”
However, as more votes were counted on Thursday, which largely included Democratic mail in ballot votes, many red leaning states flipped to blue and the election results turned in Vice President Biden’s favor. President Trump then began to repeat this potentially dangerous narrative of Democratic voter fraud being the reason for his failure to be re elected. On Thursday morning, Trump tweeted: “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!” This tweet was flagged by Twitter for false information on account of President Trump’s claim that he was up “big” (he actually wasn’t up at all) and baselessly accused Democrats of trying to fraudulently steal the election. After complaining about his votes being “whittled down” in states where he had been leading on Election Night, President Trump expressed disapproval of a peaceful transition of power to Vice President Biden, if he wins. Rather, he suggested that he would lead a legal battle until he wins the election. Currently, he is pursuing lawsuits in Michigan, Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, where President Trump lost or is closing to losing his lead to Vice President Biden.
The baseless claims of voter fraud, predicted by Trump’s previously voiced opinions about mail in voting, were a clear sign of Trump’s desperation in the face of his falling vote count and his objection to leaving the White House without a fight in the courts. Although no real evidence of voter fraud has been uncovered, Trump’s claims caused many of his more loyal supporters to gather at polling centers to demand a recount. CNN calls this narrative “corrosive and potentially dangerous” for its possible effect in undermining the American citizens’ faith in the government and the American government’s credibility in the eyes of the rest of the world as well. President Trump’s objection to leaving office foreshadows a long legal battle before a confirmed result for the US 2020 Presidential Election.
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Trump calling the election early, and then him saying later on when he started to lose some key states that it was because of fraud is very dangerous to the integrity of our democracy. Trump's comments undermine our democracy and cause hysteria among the American population. Him suggesting that he will not give up his power if Biden wins, and saying he will use the Supreme Court to make sure that all of the "illegal ballots" are not counted also reflects the behavior of a dictator, and is also causing hysteria and doubt about our democracy. Thank you so much for sharing!
Trump's false claims of voter fraud continue to embarrass our country and American democracy. So far, there has been no proof of any fraudulent activities concerning the election. The influx of democratic ballots are a direct result of mail in ballots being counted after in person voting. Both democrat and republican parties knew before the election that mail in ballots would tend to be more numerous in democratic counties which is precisely why the Trump administration cut funding to post offices in order to suppress this strong democratic voice in hopes of preserving power. Despite these restrictions, it seems that the ongoing election has not gone in Trump's favor. As a CNN reporter at Trump's press conference asked this Thursday, are Trump's accusations just a sign of him being a sore loser? It certainly appears that way, he cheats the system to make it harder for democratic mail-in ballots to be counted and when that fails, he resorts to exploiting the judiciary system to ask for suppression of millions of votes that arrived by the deadline. He is willing to disregard the representation of the American people in an effort to keep power. At this point, his administration has closely mirrored that of a totalitarian government, suppressing the voices of opponents and refusing to give up power even when the majority has spoken. As the months pass and it does in fact turn out that Joe Biden has won the election I hope that there is a safe and effective transfer of executive power between the two parties.
Like Laurent and Ben mentioned, by pushing the narrative of voter fraud, Trump is delegitimizing a core of American democracy: the presidential election. However, the impacts of this are much more significant — by reducing the trust the American people have the system, Trump is almost encouraging his supporters to fight against the system, through riots at polling locations (which is ironic considering Trump’s stance on other riots). Luckily, the US has many laws in place to ensure a peaceful transfer of power. All Trump is really doing, other than increasing the divide, is delaying is inevitable loss. Right after most media outlets called Joe Biden the winner this morning, Trump tweeted “I won this election, by a lot.” Anderson Cooper sums this behavior up perfectly: Trump is acting “like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun realizing his time is over.” Trump is going out in the same way he came in — by being extremely unpresidential.
I think that Trump making premature assumptions about this election is extremely dangerous for our country and goes to further the characterization of our President. It's hard to see our President accuse people within our country of voter fraud just because he isn't liking the outcome. I think the things he posted on social media, (mainly twitter) before and during the election were inappropriate and very bad sportsmanship like. This election in particular was just so highly anticipated, I think mainly due to the extreme support and non-support that Trump receives. Especially with what has gone on this year with Covid and many other horrible things this election has been highly anticipated. But by Trump using his Twitter fingers to call out illegal ballots and certain states I think that it is inappropriate and is not very patriotic of him, though he might not agree with them, they are still US citizens and people of this country and their vote matters too.
Building off of what Ashley said, I also agree that Trump's tweets are very unprofessional and immature coming from someone who the American people are supposed to look up to. Trump decided to claim that the election was in fact rigged and there was voter fraud going on. He also wanted to sue the states that he lost in because of this, which is very embarrassing coming from the president of the United States. It seems like this is more of an issue of ego and pride rather than actual fraud and "illegal" voting. Additionally, Trump decided to voice his opinion on Twitter, a popular social media platform, where many (especially young and impressionable) are able to access his tweets. This is harmful because his supporters or others might blindly agree with what he is saying, even though Trump has not really offered any solid evidence or proof that the election is rigged. While many people might step back and ask for this proof, some might also just blindly follow what others are saying because they are not told otherwise.
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