The Trump presidency is dying in futile violence, constitutional sabotage and a comprehensive victory for the Democrats.
The insurgent rampage through the Capitol and its legislative chambers was triggered by Donald Trump’s reckless campaign of incitement and his fraudulent accusation of a “stolen election”.
As power seeps from Trump he has become the enemy of American democracy, its constitution and the will of the people. His populist quest to “Make America Great Again” is ending in violence and ruin.
The mob assault on the Capitol exposes a fractured nation and Trump’s rebellious challenge to incoming president Joe Biden. Trump’s rage is that of a loser: he lost the White House, lost in the courts, and has now lost in the congress.
His final fate is the resort of the demagogue.
By refusing to accept the legitimacy of his defeat at the ballot box, Trump reveals his unfitness to have been US president. The president’s most sacred oath is to defend the constitution, not sabotage it; to accept defeat with honour, not attempt a dishonourable revolt.
Despite mob violence, the institutions stood resilient. The congress reconvened to certify Biden’s election victory. Republican congressional leader Mitch McConnell repudiated Trump, warning anything less meant a “death spiral” for democracy.
Vice-President Mike Pence chaired the sitting, rejecting Trump’s intimidation and declaring that the violent agitators “did not win”.
The growing bipartisan stand against Trump — morally and politically — will taint his brand forever and diminish his support. A threshold has been crossed: many Americans will feel shock at the Trump-inspired assault on their democratic institutions.
But Trump remains unleashed, an agent of grievance, stoking public anger and resorting to the big lie — the method of autocrats throughout history. The ominous signal came with his unrepentant message after the rampage through the Capitol, when Trump, speaking with a forked tongue, told his supporters to “go home” while steeling their belief that this was a “stolen election”.
While asking his supporters to be peaceful, Trump insisted he won the election in a “landslide” and declared “love” for the rioters who stormed the building, saying their election victory had been “viciously stripped away from great patriots”.
Trump’s political wreckage is spreading across the land. His narcissistic campaign against democracy has helped to deliver the Democrats the two critical seats in the Georgia runoffs. This means the Democrats will have the numbers in a Senate that is split 50-50 courtesy of the vote of Kamala Harris, as vice-president.
Trump has not just wrecked the Republican Party. He has sabotaged its control of the Senate. He turned the Georgia elections into a campaign about himself. He has helped to deliver control of the US government — lock, stock and barrel — to the Democrats.
Was this deliberate, or just recklessness? Did Trump calculate that it would suit him for the Republicans to lose?
Depending on how Biden exercises his authority, the way now lies open for the Democrats to legislate a progressive agenda on tax, spending and climate change. The US will move decisively to the left, risking entrenched polarisation. A broken Republican Party, split between the need to defy Trump but aware this jeopardises its base vote, will be thrown on the defensive.
The US now sits on a psychological knife-edge. This crisis. which has seen four fatalities, can either provoke a public retreat towards common ground. or trigger even deeper confrontation. Biden’s skill as a unifying agent will be tested to the limit.
The confrontation on Capitol Hill was driven by Trump’s longstanding fixation. He always declared that if he lost the election, it would prove the system was “rigged”. Trump was never going to accept defeat. But a childlike inability to accept a loss becomes, in the hands of a defeated president, a path towards sedition.
It was Trump who urged his supporters to march on Capitol Hill, declaring: “We will never concede.” After their incursions into the chambers, legislators huddled behind benches and were than evacuated.
Pence had earlier released a statement rejecting Trump’s demands that he invalidate Biden’s election victory, saying: “My oath to support and defend the constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”
The Wall Street Journal editorialised, supporting Pence: “Mr Trump’s vision of loyalty consists of loyalty only to himself.”
During the debate, veteran Republican senator and Trump backer Lindsey Graham called for the results to be certified. “Trump and I, we have had a hell of a journey,” Graham said. “All I can say is, count me out; enough is enough.”
Majority leader McConnell was emphatic: “We are debating a step that has never been taken in American history: whether congress should overrule the voters and overturn a presidential election. I have served 36 years in the Senate. This will be the most important vote I have ever cast.”
Trump is an agent of betrayal. He is betraying the 74 million people who voted for him. They deserve the truth, not fabrication. Now is the time for more Republicans to speak out.
The political reality from these events is writ large: Trump is a liability for Republicans, for America, for the world. Once a champion of law and order, Trump is now the agent of disorder.
This is a dark moment in American history, with the great democracy humiliated before the world. But it will recover. Biden said the scenes “do not reflect the true America”. He called on Trump “to end the siege”, saying the chaos “borders on sedition”.
Biden’s position in terms of institutional power has strengthened each day. Trump’s only resort against him is mob incitement, which comes at the ongoing erosion of Republican support.
In a vital test of the core issue, the Senate voted 93-6 to put down a demand from a Republican minority to invalidate the Arizona presidential vote.
In the House, however, the vote was 303-121 — extraordinary evidence of a significant effort, both morally bankrupt and politically futile, to overrule Biden’s election and repudiate the public’s vote.
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