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Donald Trump could have lost the US election, but he still has 10 more weeks in office.
Democrat Joe Biden claimed victory over the weekend and started working on the transitionBut Trump has yet to give any sign that he will grant the election and leave the White House in January.
Instead, he’s pushing himself, tweeting Monday alleging voter fraud in Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, without offering proof.
Attorney General William Barr has given him qualified support, telling federal prosecutors to investigate the “substantial” allegations of voting irregularities, but urging them not to make “fanciful or implausible claims.”
Spurred by Trump’s tweets and a bizarre press conference by his lawyer Rudy Giuliani outside a Philadelphia landscaping business, some Republicans have complained of problems with signatures, ballot postmarks, and the inability of poll watchers. to analyze the counts.
Trump himself has the backing of his sons Don Jr and Eric, who have lobbied for their father to stand his ground and tweeted or re-tweeted allegations of voter fraud.
However, Trump’s daughter Ivanka has been more careful, saying on Twitter that “all votes cast legally must be counted.”
On Monday, even Fox News showed signs of having had enough.
The channel broke away from a press conference by White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who was making claims about the illegal vote.
Fox News host Neil Cavuto explained: “Unless I have more details to back that up, I can’t continue to show you this.”
And for some Republicans, the Trump campaign the undermining of democracy has gone too far.
Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan said on Twitter that there was “no defense” for the claims and Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger called for an end to the spread of “discredited disinformation,” adding, “This is freaking out.”
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Meanwhile, President Trump, according to some, seems determined to settle old scores during his remaining weeks at work, between trips to the golf course.
On Monday he announced on Twitter that he had “fired” Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Esper was reportedly unaware of Trump’s plans until White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows called him minutes before the tweet, according to US defense officials cited by Reuters.
He had opposed the president on a number of issues, including threats to use military forces to suppress protests in the summer after George Floyd’s police assassination.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “The abrupt firing of Secretary Esper is disturbing evidence that President Trump intends to use his last days in office to wreak havoc on our American democracy and on all the world”.
Adam Smith, the Democrat who heads the House Armed Services Committee, said Trump’s decision was “childish” and “reckless.”
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Paul Frymer, a professor of politics at Princeton University, described the way Mr. Esper was fired as “typical of the entire (Trump) presidency.”
He added: “He cannot control his impulses or his temper and demands loyalty above politics, the constitution or anything else.”
It is this lawsuit that has previously put him on a collision course with the defense system that has tried to avoid being seen as a political instrument of the Trump administration.
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Esper’s predecessor Jim Mattis resigned in 2018 and later said that Trump was the “first president in my life who doesn’t try to unite the American people, he doesn’t even try to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.”
Some have speculated that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the American infectious disease specialist who has contradicted Trump’s claims about the coronavirus, could be next on the list of “rescissions.”
However, Dr. Fauci is not a political appointment, which means that Trump cannot fire him outright, but could try to sideline him.
Trump also reportedly spoke about firing FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel before the election because he believed they were not loyal to him.
Whatever happens, one thing is clear: Trump is unlikely to spend the next 10 weeks graciously accepting the end of his term.
