A Complete Analysis Of Trump’s 198th Unpresidented Week As POTUS

In the face of seismic voter suppression, the majority of American voters defeated Trump and elected Biden. But the work is far from over.
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by: Ahmed Baba on November 9, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris celebrate their election victory – November 7, 2020 (Source: Kamala Harris/Twitter)

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris celebrate their election victory – November 7, 2020 (Source: Kamala Harris/Twitter)

Trump’s first major typo after winning the election was spelling Unprecedented incorrectly. He infamously tweeted “Unpresidented.” This typo is emblematic of his administration: An impulsive, frantically thrown together group of characters with virtually no oversight. After Trump was sworn in, I started writing the weekly “Unpresidented” column, analyzing every week of his presidency. This is week 198, the week Donald Trump lost re-election.

I began writing this column the week after President Trump was sworn into office. At times, it felt like I was documenting the fall of Rome, as America appeared to descend into Trump’s brand of fascism. But this week confirmed that I was actually documenting the story of American resilience and the rise of a more active democracy. Trump did make America great again, but not in the way he thinks.

I’ve been waiting 4 years to write this: Donald Trump has been defeated. Opposition to Trump isn’t partisan. After 4 years of depravity, decency has won the day. The majority of voters overcame historic voter suppression to make this happen, bolstered by a broad coalition with Black women as the backbone. While there’s still a lot of work to do, and a lot of post-election data yet to be analyzed, there’s certainly still a lot to celebrate.

Last week before the election, my Unprsidented column ran with the headline: Trump’s Efforts To Steal The Election May Have Backfired. In it, I described Trump’s plan of lying about voter fraud in mail-in ballots and delaying the mail so he could falsely declare victory while in-person votes favored him. I speculated that his scheme sparked a huge turnout and would lead to his demise. Turns out that’s exactly what happened.

The ultimate check and balance on presidential power is the people. That was proven once again this week. We saw an estimated 161 million Americans turn out to vote, and a majority voted for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Over 75 million (and counting) voted for Biden-Harris, the most votes of any presidential ticket in history.

Joe Biden will be the 46th President of the United States and Kamala Harris will be the first woman and first Black/Indian Vice President in American history. The man who dedicated his entire presidency to undoing the Obama administration’s legacy was just defeated by the Vice President of the Obama administration. Poetic justice.

The American people didn’t just beat President Trump, we beat Bill Barr, Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Ivanka, Donald Trump Jr., Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Chad Wolf, Jon Ratcliffe, Betsy DeVos, Mark Meadows, Alex Azar, Steve Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, Ben Carson, Kayleigh McEnany, and Trump’s entire team. Their corruption will soon be out of the people’s house.

It’s important to note that we avoided real authoritarianism in Trump’s second term. After eroding civil service protections, Trump was likely going to purge career government officials with loyalists. It would’ve been a legit regime. Trump was also likely going to prosecute his political targets and continue to mishandle the pandemic.

After the election results were finally announced on Saturday, the world erupted in a celebration that reminded many of the final scene in Return of the Jedi after the Empire collapsed. We went ahead and put together a video along those lines and Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, shared it, along with the Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal.

I’ve seen multiple reporters on the streets of America saying they haven’t seen anything like the Biden win celebrations. One said they have seen it in Middle Eastern countries who toppled dictators though. That’s because it’s exactly what Americans believe they just did.

Watching the celebration was the opposite of watching Trump’s assault on protestors in Lafayette Square. That felt like powerlessness in the face of a depraved authoritarian and this is just pure joy in the fact that he wasn’t powerful enough to stop the power of the people.

Later that night, Biden and Harris held a victory event and delivered speeches. The first female and Black/Indian Vice President-elect arrived on the stage in suffragette white and to the tune of Mary J. Blige and thunderous applause. Harris delivered a historic speech reminding young women around the world that anything is possible.

Then, President-elect Joe Biden delivered a speech highlighting why Americans elected him president. Trump gave us narcissism, Biden offers selflessness. Trump gave us depravity, Biden embodies decency. Trump gave us divisiveness, Biden offers unity. Trump gave us chaos, Biden offers stability. We chose wisely. But of course, not all Americans voted for Biden’s vision of America.

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Over 71 million Americans still voted for Trump. The fact the margin between Biden and Trump wasn’t even larger, especially after all the depravity and cruelty Trump has unleashed, like his indifference to mass deaths his negligence helped cause, highlighted we still have a lot of work to do.

The majority of American voters were clearly looking for closure on Trumpism. We wanted a clear, sizable defeat of everything he stands for and to send a resounding message to the world that America is better than this. While the majority of voters did send that message and we have a Biden win, the truth is, the fight against Trumpism is far from over.

We now face a cultural problem of warring values and realities built on disinformation bubbles. While many critique campaign messaging, they dodge the uncomfortable fact that America has a crisis of decency and critical thinking. We have a giant empathy gap and a shameless propaganda machine that upholds a fake, dark version of reality. Trump held up a mirror to America and showed us our faults.

America is at its greatest when we recognize our original sins and strive to live up to our stated ideals. That capacity for growth is American exceptionalism. That’s when we’re most respected globally. When nearly half the country denies sins are sins, that’s when we regress. The fact that so many Americans weren’t immediately repulsed by Donald Trump from the moment he announced his run in 2015 and he won more voters in 2020 points to a much deeper issue.

All that said, a clear majority of Americans overcame wild voter suppression and delivered Biden the most votes of any presidential candidate in American history and rejected Donald Trump. But still, President Trump and many in the Republican Party are refusing to accept defeat and dangerously undermining faith in democracy in the process.

We’ve seen countless complaints of fraud from Trump and his allies that have no basis in reality. Fox News and GOP lawmakers repeatedly complained about how long the votes were taking to count when GOP legislatures in WI, PA, and MI all blocked efforts to count mail-in ballots early on purpose.

Trump’s people have been allowed to observe at poll counting locations but are lying about it anyway. They lie to the public but they’re being honest in court and admitting to having poll observers on location. The GOP knows Trump’s voter fraud claims are lies. There is no evidence of widespread irregularities, and no one in the Trump campaign or GOP has provided any. They have no legal standing. In fact, the only attempted voter fraud that’s been confirmed is from Trump supporters.

What they’re doing is preparing to make Trump a martyr to placate his ego and keep his base fired up in the opposition. They’re doing is trying to recreate the legit anger Clinton voters felt after Russia’s interference in their own base so that they can hopefully win the Senate in the Georgia runoffs and keep a fired-up opposition for the next 4 years.

No matter what they try and do in the next couple of months, the Trump Administration and Campaign are crumbling. Their flimsy lies about voter fraud are all falling apart under scrutiny and won’t hold up in court. Their house of cards built on disinformation was always going to fall under the weight of their own shamelessness. President Trump has finally met a challenge he can’t lie his way out of, but he’s trying to anyway. The con is collapsing.

But as we enter what is supposed to be the lame-duck period and presidential transition, only the Biden-Harris ticket is taking it seriously. Trump’s GSA administrator is refusing to greenlight the transition funding and prepare the federal government to transfer power to Biden. We’ll also likely see some other wild moves from President Trump like his firing of Secretary of Defense Mike Esper.

President Trump is obviously panicking that he isn’t driving the headlines and all eyes are on President-elect Biden. Expect more attention-seeking moves as he grapples with the insecurities of his incoming powerlessness. Every move Trump will make over the next couple months will either be to stroke his ego, punish his perceived enemies, protect himself, sabotage Biden, or enrich himself on his way out.

Regardless of what he does now, Trump will eventually have to leave office on January 20th. Trump’s post-presidency life is looking perilous, as I wrote in The Independent:

As The New York Times reports, Trump still plans to be a power broker in the Republican Party and has even privately mused about running for president again in 2024. He could try to launch his own TV network — or at the very least appear on OANN often. He will likely still hold rally-like speaking events too. But it’s important to note that he is in $1 billion worth of debt with multiple investigations hovering over him, including probes of alleged fraud in New York. Trump has also already been implicated in conduct that his former fixer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to.

In more perilous signs for his post-presidency life, Trump’s longtime lender Deutsche Bank is reportedly ready to sever ties with him. As former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI Frank Figliuzzi recently pointed out, the counterintelligence threat of Trump doesn’t go away after losing re-election. What US secrets would the president be willing to reveal to get out of his debt? That question will no doubt keep a fair few government officials up at night.

While federal officials may be staying up over Trump’s post-presidency, you should sleep well tonight. Know that everything you did over the past 4 years contributed in some way – whether a protest, a donation, volunteer work, a tough conversation, or an amplified truth on social media – towards the downfall of an unprecedented American despot.

I look forward to publishing my final weekly Unpresidented column on January 19th and never covering “President” Trump again. While yes, we still have much work to do (Georgia Senate runoffs, 2022, 2024, and beyond) relish in the fact that we took down an authoritarian. If that doesn’t give you hope in America, I don’t know what will.

Let’s dive into another Unpresidented week.

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The Calm Before The Election

Day 1,383: Monday, November 2

Joe Biden (Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons) and Donald Trump (AP)

Joe Biden (Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons) and Donald Trump (AP)

Monday’s top stories:

The Day We’ve All Been Waiting For

Day 1,384: Tuesday, November 3

Left: President Donald Trump – May 30, 2018, in Washington (AP Photo/Evan Vucci). Right: Protesters cheer at the Women’s March on Washington during the first full day of Donald Trump’s presidency, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017 in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Left: President Donald Trump – May 30, 2018, in Washington (AP Photo/Evan Vucci). Right: Protesters cheer at the Women’s March on Washington during the first full day of Donald Trump’s presidency, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017 in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Tuesday’s top stories:

Election Day Turns Into Election Week

Day 1,385: Wednesday, November 4

President Donald Trump (AP) and former Vice President Joe Biden (Kuhlmann/MSC/Creative Commons)

President Donald Trump (AP) and former Vice President Joe Biden (Kuhlmann/MSC/Creative Commons)

Wednesday’s top stories:

It Becomes Clear Biden Will Win

Day 1,386: Thursday, November 5

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris (Biden Campaign Photo)

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris (Biden Campaign Photo)

Thursday’s top stories:

Putting this at the bottom so you know it happened but it was a presser full of dangerous lies:

Waiting For Biden’s Inevitable Victory

Day 1,387: Friday, November 6

Joe Biden speaks with attendees at the 2019 Iowa Federation of Labor Convention hosted by the AFL-CIO at the Prairie Meadows Hotel in Altoona, Iowa. – August 21, 2019 (Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons)

Joe Biden speaks with attendees at the 2019 Iowa Federation of Labor Convention hosted by the AFL-CIO at the Prairie Meadows Hotel in Altoona, Iowa. – August 21, 2019 (Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons)

Friday’s top stories:

Biden Beats Trump, The World Celebrates

Day 1,388-1,389: Saturday, November 7 – Sunday, November 8

The weekend’s top stories:

Rantt Media and ZipRecruiter


Unpresidented // 2020 / Activism / Democratic Party / Donald Trump / Elections / Joe Biden / Kamala Harris / Republican Party
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by: Ahmed Baba

Ahmed Baba is the Co-Founder and President of Rantt. Writer of Unpresidented, Ahmed documented and analyzed every day of the Trump presidency. He's also a columnist at The Independent and his work has been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, Rolling Stone, BuzzFeed, The New York Post, The Huffington Post, Yahoo News, Blavity, Newsweek, The Telegraph, and more. He can be reached at [email protected] or found on Twitter @AhmedBaba_.

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