Donald Trump is not done challenging the results of the 2020 election in court, and he is by no means done complaining. But there will be no “coup.” Any prospect of Trump remaining in office without a legal process that declares him the recipient of more legal votes in the decisive states has now evaporated. All that remains is a host of extremely long-shot court challenges — each of which is short on evidence. This was always the likely outcome.
Sure, we heard lots of overheated charges about how Trump was trying to stage a “coup” or “steal” the election. We have heard for years alarmist claims that Trump would not leave office peacefully. Trump, as usual, brought some of that on himself by his irresponsible rhetoric, his promotion of bomb-throwing lawyers into the spotlight, his general disregard for legal and democratic norms, and his inability to ever admit a fair defeat. From my own perspective, Trump’s behavior throughout this latest episode has underlined why he has always been unfit for the presidency as a matter of character. But there has been a disconnect — as there has been throughout Trump’s presidency — between what Trump might realistically do and what his opponents claimed he would do. That disconnect arises partly from their hysteria, but also from the limits on Trump’s power to act alone.
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