The damage Donald Trump is doing may never be undone

These are more than just the deranged actions of a sore loser. Trump’s reprehensible presidency has opened a new battleground in US politics.

US President Donald Trump speaks with former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden during his inauguration ceremony at the US Capitol in Washington, DC in 2016. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump’s refusal to accept that he lost the presidential election, his failure to concede to Joe Biden and his many attempts to overturn the result is more than just the deranged and demented actions of a sore loser. It is a repudiation of the grand American tradition of a dignified and graceful transfer of power.

It is convention for the defeated candidate to accept the election outcome, congratulate their opponent, wish them well, and call on their supporters to do the same.

This is a heavy responsibility that every defeated candidate in the past century has readily embraced. And it is fundamental to bringing the country together after an election and legitimising the new president.

Al Smith gave the first radio concession speech in 1928, and Adlai Stevenson gave the first on television in 1952. Some of the greatest speeches have been delivered by candidates in the crucible of defeat, still hurting and disappointed. It usually takes place on election night or in the days or weeks after election day. Trump has not given any such speech.

There is also the customary private phone call between the victor and the vanquished. It requires humility. This convention began with William Jennings Bryan who sent a congratulatory telegram to William McKinley in 1896. There has been no such gracious message or phone call from Trump to Biden.

Then there is the meeting between the incoming and outgoing president. The media are invited to record for history the handshake that is emblematic of a change of government conducted in a spirit of goodwill. Barack Obama invited Trump to the White House in 2016. Biden has not received his invitation. Biden did, however, meet with incoming Vice-President Mike Pence four years ago.

Nor has there been top-level co-operation between the Biden-Harris transition team and the White House. This custom was started by Harry Truman who invited Dwight D. Eisenhower to send his staff and cabinet members to meet his team in 1952. Jimmy Carter — a one-term president like Trump — sent this message to Ronald Reagan in 1980: “I congratulate you and I pledge to you our fullest support and co-operation in bringing about an orderly transition of government.”

A dignified and graceful transfer of power is a grand American tradition.

Then there is the traditional letter left on the Resolute Desk for the incoming president. Reagan wrote to George H.W. Bush in 1989: “(I) wish you all the very best. You’ll be in my prayers.” Bush wrote to Bill Clinton in 1993: “Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.” Clinton wrote to George W. Bush in 2001: “I salute you and wish you success and much happiness.” Bush wrote to Obama in 2009: “You will have … a country that is pulling for you, including me.” And Obama wrote to Trump in 2017: “Michelle and I wish you and Melania the very best … we stand ready to help in any ways which we can.”

Will Trump pen such a letter to Biden? Not a chance.

The most visible sign of the transfer of power from one president to another is the inauguration, traditionally held on the steps of the US Capitol. This is a celebration of democracy where presidents past, outgoing and incoming gather to legitimise the election result. Biden, as vice-president, attended Trump’s inauguration in 2017 with Obama.

Trump has not yet said whether he will attend Biden’s inauguration. Trump’s no-show would represent another trashing of convention. John Adams and John Quincy Adams — father and son — refused to attend their successors’ inaugurations in 1801 and 1829. The only other president to refuse an invitation is Andrew Johnson in 1869. Trump would be the fourth.

The meeting of the Electoral College in state capitols this week, where electors cast their votes for president reflecting the will of the voters, is past time for Trump to accept that he lost the election and Biden won.

Biden’s Electoral College victory effectively ends any hope Trump had for remaining president. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell finally congratulated Biden this week. It is shameful that it took him so long.

It is worth noting there were no so-called “faithless electors” this year. In other words, no elector decided to break ranks and not vote for who they were pledged to vote for. Some states make this illegal. But in 2016, there were seven faithless electors so Trump received 304 votes to Hillary Clinton’s 227. This year, Biden received 306 votes to Trump’s 232. So, Biden won more votes than Trump.

But Trump has not accepted Biden’s Electoral College mandate. Nor has he faced up to the fact that he lost the popular vote by a large margin of more than seven million votes. Trump received 46.8 per cent of the vote to Biden’s 51.3 per cent. Trump’s defeat was clear and convincing.

Instead, Trump launched an assault on the electoral system. While Trump’s presidency has gone from farce to tragedy — manifest in his disastrous response to COVID-19 — it is now in a new toxic phase. Trump has done what no other US president has done before: rejected the democratic process and systematically tried to overturn it. These are the actions of an autocrat not a democrat.

Trump’s claims of a rigged election and widespread fraud have not changed the result. His call to stop counting votes was ignored. His recounts did not produce a different outcome. His lawsuits have not succeeded. The Supreme Court ruled that his claim of vote fraud had no merit. And his intimidation of state officials to overturn results have failed. This behaviour is contemptible.

But this reprehensible presidency has opened a new battleground in US politics. The US electoral system is under strain, even though its integrity has endured. In trying to change the election result, Trump has shattered yet more norms and conventions, and sought to subvert legally certified votes. Trump has poisoned the electoral process by not accepting its legitimacy. This will have a lasting impact.

The upshot is that this is a perilous and pitiful moment for the US. It is what many of the founders feared. In his farewell address in 1796, George Washington warned against “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men” who would “subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government”.

For now, the electoral institutions and the individuals responsible for them have upheld the will of the voters to determine their president. They have not broken but they have been stress-tested.

Danger has been averted but only because they held fast to the founding creed and values of the great republic that Trump has tried to destroy.