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Historically unprecedented process
Attempted coup or political show: what is Donald Trump up to?
Donald Trump: in a historically unprecedented process, the president of the United States refuses to recognize the result of an election
© Alex Brandon / DPA
The refusal of the president of the United States to acknowledge his electoral defeat and his actions in recent days has caused much speculation.
Is it just the challenge of a narcissist who can’t lose? Is Donald Trump planning a coup to stay in power? Or is it a great political show with which Trump is preparing a possible comeback in four years and is also financially restructuring?
A few days have passed since major US broadcasters declared Trump’s challenger Joe Biden the winner of the election. But in a historically unprecedented process, the incumbent refuses to acknowledge the outcome of the elections and instead launches accusations of fraud day after day.
The 74-year-old man started a real battle for justice. But the appearance of his legal team seems so amateurish, the content of the lawsuits so far-fetched that observers only shake their heads. The preliminary highlight was a bizarre press conference by Trump’s private attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in front of a daycare center in Philadelphia that bears the same name as the “Four Seasons” luxury hotel.
However, observers were less likely to laugh when the president fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who was considered relatively independent, earlier in the week. As a result, the president also placed three supporters in key positions in the Pentagon.
The alarm bells are ringing
Did Trump just want revenge on Esper, who openly opposed him in June on the question of a possible army deployment in the Black Lives Matter protests? Do you want to hastily conclude the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in the final weeks of your mandate so that you can sell it as a political success? Or does Trump want to turn to the Pentagon and the military in the power struggle for the White House?
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Alarm bells rang among many observers when Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, allowed federal prosecutors to investigate allegations of voter fraud. In protest, the head of the ministry’s department responsible for prosecuting voting rights violations resigned. Critics accused Barr of using the ministry as a “weapon” to reverse the vote.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s declaration that there would be a “smooth transition to a second Trump administration” was not exactly the right choice to calm minds.
Is reality TV star Trump just putting on a big show?
Recently, there have been more and more discussions about whether Trump could still try to influence the selection of the electorate that ultimately elects the president. Then the United States would finally have a serious constitutional crisis.
But many consider such warnings to be exaggerated. Rather, they assume that former reality TV star Trump will simply put on a great show, but will eventually step down. Trump garnered more than 72 million votes in the election, the second-highest number of all presidential candidates in American history after the election winner, Biden, and has a fanatic following in some cases.
Donald Trump is already charging
Trump is likely to use this political capital for years to come, possibly even with a view to a comeback in the 2024 presidential election. Claiming that he was scammed into his reelection could be a major mobilizing factor. According to a poll, 70 percent of Republican supporters believe the November 3 elections were not free and fair.
With this argument, Trump is already profiting: the president’s team bombards supporters with emails appealing for donations to combat the alleged electoral theft by the “left-wing mafia.” In the fine print, however, it says that part of the money will be used to pay off Trump’s campaign debts and another part for a new political organization called “Save America,” with which Trump can finance future political activities.
