TRUMP’S END GAME

He knows he is not going to win his seemingly endless lawsuits.

He is learning that he will not subvert the Electoral College.

So just what is he doing, and why?

I think it probably has more to do with grasping at whatever legal straws his legal “team” can think of to satisfy their client’s mania to appear to his minions as a scrappy fighter who is struggling against “the Deep State”.

By now even Trump knows he will not win. He also knows that what he is doing is feeding the mania of his base and perversely deepening their feelings of love and loyalty for him.

He needs that, for both psychological and practical reasons — after all, their monetary contributions will help fund his political afterlife and assuage his wounded pride. And he does not care about whatever lasting damage to our nation he might cause the n pursuing this course of action. Scorched earth suits him and his purpose just fine. “Look what Biden did to the Beautiful Economy I left him!” Just as he profited politically from the recovering economy he inherited, he will equally profit from the economy he is now actively attempting to ruin.

Once he has lost his last lawsuit, and the Electoral College have cast their votes, I really do think he is likely to cut and run. He has no interest in either doing the work of transition, or certainly not in participating in the public spectacle of being a gracious loser at an inauguration. I would honestly be more surprised to see him actively participate in an inauguration than I would to see him abdicate and run away before it happens.

I recently wrote about that eventuality here: https://link.medium.com/u9wP6HNVCbb

The goal is to keep his memory alive in the hearts of his minions and myrmidons, keep whatever weird “name brand” he has alive, and preserve whatever hope he thinks he has for a political resurrection he might have in 2024. To do this, he will happily sacrifice the lives and wealth of America. They are simply pawns in his greater game of self-aggrandizement.

Despite all this fear-talk of Trump refusing to leave the White House, I sincerely doubt that is realistic. He has shown in the past that he recognizes when he has lost “The Deal” and an ability to walk away just in time to leave everyone else holding the debt.

None of this is outlined in anything resembling a coherent “plan”. Trump is a creature who operates more from a savant-like instinct for what works on “reality tv”, and he has successfully transformed our political processes into that form of popular entertainment. His supporters will gasp in amazement and wonder as it happens, because they believe in the mythos he has created.

This is going to drag on for a while, but other than shake your head over the damage he is doing to our institutions and society, the end result is certain. Biden will be inaugurated as President at noon in the 20th of January.

Whether Trump is there or not is up to him.

I doubt he will be.