After Trump

In the face of more than 60 legal challenges and intense pressure from Trump, no public authority, election official or court found any evidence of fraud beyond occasional human error. The US Congress was due to meet on 6 January to confirm the election of President-Elect Joe Biden by ceremonially opening and counting the votes of the members of the Electoral College from each state, in a session convened by Vice President Mike Pence. Even judges appointed by Trump himself in the months preceding the election uniformly dismissed his claims, often with prejudice.6 In seeking to craft a political reality that defined him as the sole legitimate leader of the United States, Trump moved from the divisive but marginally democratic appeals of populism towards the cult of personality characteristic of fascism. Civic institutions and popular perceptions have turned against Trump, but this does not change the reality that a leader so hostile to the very norms of his own constitutional democracy did actually rule for a period of four years and received the support of some 74 million voters in a general election.