US election: Why Donald Trump is still about to face his real fight
Global headlines will be about Donald Trump’s breakneck 17 rallies crammed into his final four days of campaigning. But the real fight is about to begin.
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Analysis: Like everything about Donald Trump, Americans either love or loathe his social media output.
But while his tweets are often offensive, rarely appropriate and pretty much never statesmanlike, there are some valuable insights to be gained by reading between the childish all-caps tantrums about what he’s watching on cable TV.
Such as yesterday morning, when the 45th president of the United States was tapping away on his phone around 3am from his private quarters in the White House, decrying two legal defeats in crucial swing states that could well cost him the election.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Pennsylvania and North Carolina could continue counting ballots for nine days after the polls close.
“This decision is CRAZY and so bad for our Country,” he raged.
“Can you imagine what will happen during that nine day period. The election should END on November 3.”
While the headlines today will be about his breakneck rallies – 17 events in the final four days of campaigning – the real fight is most likely yet to come.
Because while Team Trump is hitting multiple battlegrounds across America’s Midwest, north east and southern states in his final tilt for re-election, he is also continuing to lay the groundwork for extensive challenges if he doesn’t like how the count goes on Tuesday.
Even before the pandemic up-ended the 2020 race, it was expected that there would be a big “blue shift“, in which Republicans perform better with in-person, election day votes, while Democrats, more of whom vote early and by mail, catch up in counting over the following days.
With some states having already received more than their entire 2016 turnout, this phenomena looks set to have an outsize impact.
Despite the chaotic appearance of the Trump White House, to which the president’s tweets only add, the Republican ground game has eclipsed that of Democrats over recent months.
Team Biden hasn’t knocked on doors since campaigning was effectively suspended when the coronavirus shut the country down in April. New Republican voter registrations are five times those of Democrats in some crucial races.
None of it is good news for Americans already weary of this chaotic year.
Gun sales are at record levels and some short range ammunition is sold out across the country. Entire blocks in cities such as New York, Washington DC, Chicago and Philadelphia are already boarded up in anticipation of riots.
There is one Election Day outcome that pundits say could tip the scenario here back to safety, but it appears highly unlikely: a Joe Biden landslide.
Even though polls put Biden ahead by an average 7.9 points nationally, it’s a lot closer and even neck and neck in some of the swing states that Trump won in 2016 and carved his shock victory.
No matter how the next few days play out, the only sure bet is that it’s going to be another wild ride.
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Originally published as US election: Why Donald Trump is still about to face his real fight
Read related topics:Donald Trump