Most politicians never forget the races they lost. But no elected official has ever been installed on an electoral defeat like President Donald Trump.
Although the White House successfully restored last November, Mr. Trump continued to deport with the regularity of the 2020 elections, which still insists on being stolen from it. In observations as well as presidential procedures, it appears that it intends to reshape the official narration surrounding its four-year-old-even as the new evidence continues to enhance the reality of that defeat.
Mr. Trump often frame the presidency of Joe Biden as illegal. The war in Ukraine “had never happened if the 2020 elections were not falsified, in other words, if you are president,” ” He wrote about social truth On April 13. I have made Similar claims Around October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
Why did we write this
Although defamation claims still find any evidence of fraudulent elections, President Donald Trump insists that the 2020 vote is “forged”. It issues orders targeting officials and lawyers whose work undermines its claims, and calls on states to tighten the rules of voting to prevent alleged fraud.
As president, Mr. Trump Pay members of the Ministry of Justice In his efforts to cancel the victory of Mr. Biden, who crowned the attack on the American Capitol on January 6, 2021. Poor appointed Specifically, on their views of who won the 2020 elections. One of his first official actions as a president was a pardon for hundreds of persons convicted of federal crimes related to riots on January 6, which led to the loss of lives between demonstrators and the police, and injuries to more than 140 law enforcement officers.
Parallel to his actions that look at 2020, Mr. Trump also sought to dictate how the states manage the elections, which confirms the authority to implement federal laws in a partner Executive order This includes provisions on polling cards via mail, establishing citizenship, and voting machinery certificates. Conspiracy theories appeared about the voices fluctuating to Mr. Biden prominently in the efforts of Mr. Trump in 2020 to stay in power. Multiple countries challenge the executive order in court.
Although it is not clear whether everything stems from deep insecurity, an attempt to raise his legacy, or a greater political strategy to provide greater strength on future elections, it seems that Mr. Trump’s preoccupation with 2020 is leading important presidential procedures and policies in ways that may have real effects of American democracy.
“It is a grievance policy in the midst of his view of the world,” says Nicole Hemmer, a historian of the University of Vanderbelt directs the Rogers Center for the US Presidency. “It comes to a question about the election results and the destruction of people’s confidence in this result.”
Professor Heimer says that examining those appointed to their views of the 2020 elections is an affirmation of a chilling for the presidential authority. “It is not a test if you think the elections were stolen. It is whether you are ready to say that the elections were stolen.”
In the polls, The majority of Republican voters Continue to say that they believed that the 2020 elections were fraudulent, echoing the allegations of Mr. Trump. However, multiple judicial challenges, state reviews, and defamation claims related to fraud claims came and went without providing any basis for doubt in the result.
David Baker, who heads the Center for Innovation and Research in Elections, a non -profit institution that works with election officials, says that Mr. Trump’s speech had already had a corrosion impact on democracy. In the wake of the spread of wrong information around 2020, unprecedented levels of abuse and threats against the state and local officials who supervise the elections occurred. “Public employees – the Democrats and the Republicans – have faltered because of these lies,” he says.
“It is unfortunate that we have a losing candidate that will not accept his loss.”
Judgment provisions refute the claims of fraud
One of the square, where Mr. Trump’s allegations of the stolen elections were punctured repeatedly in cases of defamation. A series of lawsuits filed by the Dominion voting systems against the right -wing media have shed light on the lies narrated by Mr. Trump’s allies on the air about the company, which manufacture electronic voting machines, surveying devices and programs.
Some of Trump’s allies faced their own defamation allowances. Rudi Juliani, a former lawyer for Mr. Trump, was found responsible for distorting two Georgia elections regarding the 2020 elections and ordered a $ 148 million ruling. Carrie Lake, who was nominated without success, settled for the position of governor of Arizona in 2022, for an amount that was not revealed last year with Stephen Riccher, a registrar of boycotting the Republican Party, who accused him of falsehood of falsifying its defeat.
In both cases, none of the defendants competed for the evidence presented in the court, and instead, he moved to the stage of damage. Mr. Baker, a former civil rights lawyer in the Ministry of Justice, says their acceptance of responsibility. He says: “The truth is an absolute defense of defamation.”
The last defamation ruling came on April 9, when a judge in Delaware found that newsmax was Spread multiple false claims About sovereignty. The jury is scheduled to decide the possible damage later this month. In 2023, Fox News paid $ 787 million to settle with Dominion after a similar discovery. Analysts say newsmax, whose owner, may be Chris Rudi, is a close associate of Mr. Trump, may also settle outside the court with Dominion to avoid the trial of the jury.
On the same day as the rule of newsmax, Mr. Trump He ordered an investigation into Chris KrebisHis former director of the Cyber Security Agency and the infrastructure. He had shot Mr. Krebis in November 2020 after the director said that there was no evidence of computer fraud in the presidential elections. His agency had described the elections as “the safest in American history”, which angered the besieged president.
Mr. Trump has also signed an executive order to end the Federal contract with Houston -based law firm, Dominion, in defamation lawsuits against media organizations. Suzman Jodfrey, The latest law firm is targetedSince then, a judicial judge of a federal judge has temporarily obscured the matter, which the judge called “a horrific abuse of power.”
Jane Kurly, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, says Mr. Trump “promised to approach, and this is what is happening.” “He has very thin skin, and has a very long memory.”
The executive procedure against Mr. Krebis is noticeable to nominate an individual instead of an institution like a law firm or a university. He cancels the security permits that Mr. Krebis maintains, and he is now a cyber security adviser. He is called “a great representative of the bad religions that he weapons and offended the treatment of his government’s authority,” claiming that he is subject to the views of the province.
During the signing of the document, Mr. Trump was falsely claimed “More and more fraud” has been discovered About the 2020 elections. He said, referring to Mr. Krebis: “Therefore, we will discover whether or not the elections are safe, and if not, he will get a large price, a bad man,” referring to Mr. Krebis.
Professor Hummermar says that “illegal use” of the presidential authority is very worrying. “It is the loyalty test for the year 2020 that you should go through to be part of the administration. Now we see the other side,” she says. “You will be distinguished and punished” for the opposition.
Official procedures for voting
On March 25, the executive matter of Mr. Trump does not indicate the election safety “protection” explicitly to 2020, but he justifies his actions as necessary to prevent fraud. It will require those who register a vote to prove their nationality, impose a tougher final for revolutionaries by mail, and enable federal agencies to review the state’s lists in the state. Several lawsuits were filed against it by states and left -wing groups. Some conservatives also criticized this as a federal transgression indicating that the constitutional rights stipulating the election management.
“The elections may have national consequences, but the ability to manage them falls in the government of the cabetol. Piece of opinion In the Wall Street magazine earlier this month.
Congress also took the issue of citizenship and voter records. The house recently passed Conservation LawThis imposes new states that republicans argue that they are necessary to prevent non -voting citizens. It is already illegal to vote those who are not invalid in the federal elections, and The cases seem very rare. Many Democrats say that the requirements for establishing citizenship will prohibit the rights of legal voters who do not have ready access to documents such as birth certificates.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that Democrats are illegally obtained from immigrants in the country. After winning the election college but lost the popular vote against Hillary Clinton in 2016, he established a committee to investigate such an alleged illegal vote. The committee was dissolved after failing to provide a guide to support Mr. Trump’s claims. In the 2024 campaign, Mr. Trump and his allies made more allegations without evidence, including that the Democrats “imported” millions of migrants to swing countries to vote for his opponent, Kamala Harris.
“The majority of Americans support anti -fraud measures such as voter identity and citizenship checks. But he is concerned that “fear” by Mr. Trump undermines public faith in the polling box. He says, “Our elections are worthy.”
Ironically, the payment of Republicans to obtain tougher rules on registration of voters may reduce their partisan interests. While the Democrats may have benefited from facilitating the voting, this is now inconsistent with the coalition that was collected by Mr. Trump, which includes many irregular voters who only turn when it is in voting.
“Republicans have now become a party for the late voters in the low density who may not appear to the polling stations with all their documents,” says Mr. Germer.
