More than a week after election results were called and defeat became clear, current president Donald Trump still refuses to concede.

To those who are familiar with Trump’s previous demeanor, this comes as little surprise. And yet, there is still something inherently disturbing about a sitting president continuing to tweet messages of victory despite the fact that sources across the board have already called the election in favor of Joe Biden. Twitter itself has even begun marking many of Trump’s tweets with warnings reading “Multiple sources called this election differently” or “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”

“I won the Election!”
-Donald Trump, November 16 (Twitter)
**The Associated Press declared Joe Biden the winner at 11:25 am on November 7.

Trump justifies his refusal to accept defeat by claiming that the election was rigged. These claims are not surprising to those who have kept up with Trump’s statements preceding the election, in which he sought to paint mail-in ballots as a threat to American democracy. And, here is the irony of the situation. Trump spent months claiming that mail-in ballots were unsafe and fraudulent, and encouraging Republicans to vote in-person. And then, when a large majority of mail-in ballots were Democratic— he claimed that voter fraud played a role.

It is always important to ensure that elections are fair, and there is no problem with leading an investigation to ensure that all votes were counted. However, it is clear that the sole purpose of Trump’s accusations is to bring him back into power. This is seen clearly in his mid-election call to stop counting the votes, believing in his own victory after the in-person ballots— not surprisingly— were largely red. It is clear that in Trump’s eyes, American democracy is simply a tool, something that he can manipulate and bend at his own will. He claims to be an “American” president, and yet he constantly seeks to undermine the political process that gave him power and status in the first place.

Trump has been called out for his actions by a number of relevant figures, and no one can describe the issue more eloquently than Michelle Obama. The caption of her latest post describes her struggles with putting aside bias and helping the Trump family transition into power.

“I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do—because our democracy is so much bigger than anybody’s ego. Our love of country requires us to respect the results of an election even when we don’t like them or wish it had gone differently—the presidency doesn’t belong to any one individual or any one party. To pretend that it does, to play along with these groundless conspiracy theories— whether for personal or political gain—is to put our country’s health and security in danger.”
-Michelle Obama, Nov. 16 (Instagram)

There is no problem with challenging and maintaining election integrity. What is a problem, however, is throwing around baseless accusations of fraud in the face of defeat. However, despite what Donald Trump tries to claim: the process that once gave him power has now taken it away. America has spoken, and it has chosen Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America.

Citations:

@realDonaldTrump. “I won the Election!” Twitter, 16 Nov. 2020, 8:51 a.m.,

Obama, Michelle. (@michelleobama). “This week, I’ve been reflecting a lot on… “ Instagram, 16 Nov. 2020,

Slodysko, Brian. “Explaining Race Calls: How AP Called the Race for Biden.” AP, 7 Nov. 2020, www.apnews.com/article/ap-explains-race-calls-0b1988605f9101f4b799fc63b01e0090.