APPARENTLY Donald Trump has finally gotten tired of winning.
We all remember when Donald Trump said “We’re going to win so much you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning.”
I admit I hit the “sick and tired” mark a very long time ago, but apparently Donald Trump himself has gotten “so sick and tired of winning” that he has been losing at an extraordinary rate.
It started on November 3rd when he lost the presidential election. His loss was pronounced officially on November 7th when enough votes had been counted across the country to declare with certainty.
He lost Wisconsin twice, once after the votes were counted and again after the Trump campaign spent 3 million dollars on a partial recount that ultimately determined that Joe Biden’s win was undercounted by 123 votes.
In spite of his delusional claims to have won Georgia big, earlier this week the president lost Georgia — again. On Monday, after two recounts, that state’s secretary of state affirmed Trump’s loss for the third time.
The president’s win-loss record is no better in the courts. In an Associated Press tally, with nearly 50 court challenges filed by team Trump, only one saw any success at all, a small case in Pennsylvania that had nothing to do with fraudulent ballots.
He lost in Arizona when Judge Randall Warner wrote in a decision that there was no evidence of a fraudulent scheme.
Trump lost in Nevada when Judge James Russell wrote that the GOP did not offer evidence “under any standard of proof that illegal votes were cast and counted, or legal votes were not counted at all, due to voter fraud.”
He lost in Michigan. He lost in Minnesota. He lost bigly in Pennsylvania.
In a particularly notable moment in a Pennsylvania courtroom, where Trump’s lawyers were alleging that legitimate Republican poll watchers were being denied access to the recount, they ultimately admitted that there were a “non-zero number” of GOP poll watchers in the room.
In fact, at the recount in question there were a dozen Republican observers and five Democrats.
It’s been a rough month for a president who despises losing and the pressure is showing. Trump has been on a 36-day rant, each accusation of fraud more outrageous and conspiratorial than the last.
He has used the Oval Office to attempt to influence — some have suggested illegally — governors and state election officials to take extraordinary measures to overturn legitimate election outcomes.
His rhetoric has led to threats of violence against poll workers and county and state officials. He has convinced millions of Americans that an election that has been called the most secure and accurate in our country’s history was in fact “rigged.”
What we are watching now is a fragile narcissist in an emotionally unstable state of mind engaged in a frenzied attempt to convince the world of a provable falsehood. It is more than just a little disconcerting to realize just how many people are willing to embrace this craziness.
Most damaging of all are the number of elected Republican officials who should feel some obligation to the good of the country and the preservation of the constitution and yet remain silent or, worse, encourage the president’s destructive efforts.
There is good news in all of this, however. Election officials across the country have stood up to the bullying of the president. They have shown integrity and strength in executing their duties. The election results are being properly certified in every state and next week the Electoral College votes will be formally certified as well.
On Jan. 20, 2021, Joe Biden, the legitimate winner of the election, will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. We will start anew, as we do each time a new president takes office, reminded of the promise that is America and the unlimited opportunity to do and be better that is inherent in that promise.
And Donald Trump will go down in history as having lost one election more times than any other losing candidate. I guess that makes him America’s biggest loser.
