A Complete Analysis Of Trump’s 199th Unpresidented Week As POTUS

Trump's spread of election lies highlights the fact it's not traditional ideological divides that keep us polarized, it's disinformation.
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by: Ahmed Baba on November 15, 2020

Fox News Host Sean Hannity, Soon-To-Be-Former President Donald Trump, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (AP)

Fox News Host Sean Hannity, Soon-To-Be-Former President Donald Trump, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (AP)

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 199.

Donald Trump began his political career the same way he’s ending his presidency: with dangerous conspiracy theories questioning the legitimacy of a Democratic president.

Donald Trump has not conceded the election to President-elect Joe Biden and is spreading lies about the election. Trump has falsely called it “rigged” and “stolen.” If these were words spread by one powerless man without a megaphone, this wouldn’t be as much of a problem. But this democracy-eroding disinformation is coming from the President of the United States and being spread by a phalanx of Republican allies, media propagandists, and platforms like Facebook.

While pundits look back at the election and wonder why so many people voted for Donald Trump, you’ll hear takes about racism and policy differences. But it’s more than that. What really keeps America so polarized is the fact the majority of Americans exist in objective reality while a stubborn minority believes in a false reality cultivated by right-wing content and social media algorithms.

If we still had a Fairness Doctrine and right-wing media didn’t craft alternate realities bolstered by personalized disinformation bubbles via Facebook’s algorithm, Republican support would be below 20%. Mark Zuckerberg has done as much damage, if not more, to Western democracy and the American psyche as Rupert Murdoch. While Murdoch’s orgs gaslight millions of Americans into a false reality, Zuckerberg is amplifying all kinds of fringe right-wing content even more effectively. This is one of the biggest challenges of our time.

Just look at the disinformation that the Trump Campaign used to target Cubans in Florida. Trump’s cries of “socialism” were baseless fear-mongering, but it worked on millions of Americans. President Trump also spent his entire campaign pushing debunked claims of corruption against Hunter Biden and even began spreading lies about COVID-19, claiming doctors inflated deaths.

In preparation for his election loss, Trump already laid the groundwork for his voter fraud by attacking mail-in voting. In fact, Trump has been lying about voter fraud since 2016. Now he’s trying to make excuses for his loss, all while grifting his base. I wonder if Trump’s supporters realize their donations to Trump’s election legal fund are actually going to his campaign debt, post-presidency PAC, and the RNC.

Frankly, Donald Trump is no different than Q himself. From birtherism to calls for imprisonment of targets to voter fraud lies, Trump always promises a big reveal that never comes. When one conspiracy theory is disproven, they just move onto the next one. It doesn’t matter each lie continues to fail, the anticipation is the point. That’s the same thing with Trumpism. Some secret is always coming and that collective delusion makes them feel part of something. Trumpism and QAnon are synonymous. So much so that Trump’s latest conspiracy theory about the election, involving the software company Dominion, is actually straight from QAnon itself, according to NBC’s Ben Collins.

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In reality, this election was the most secure in American history, according to Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security. The federal prosecutors assigned in the Department of Justice that were directed to probe voter irregularities by Attorney General Barr have already said they see no evidence of widespread irregularities. Key witnesses alleging voter fraud are either recanting their stories or being proven wrong. The New York Times contacted election officials in every state who said they found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. As CNN’s Jake Tapper outlined, Trump’s legal cases are failing across the country with Trump’s lawyers directly contracting their own lies:

In spite of this reality, right-wing media from the opinion shows on Fox “News,” to OANN, to Breitbart, to Newsmax are all still spreading Trump’s voter fraud lies. This happens every single time.

Step 1: Trump creates a new conspiracy theory about corruption based entirely on lying lunacy.

Step 2: Barr or some other official probes it and finds absolutely nothing.

Step 3: Trump ignores the result, keep repeating the lie with help of right-wing media.

Step 4: Repeat.

This time though, Donald Trump can’t lie his way into maintaining power. There are signs that some in the Republican Party are beginning to grapple with the reality of their predicament. Republican Senators Lankford, Grassley, and now Graham have all now said they think Biden should begin getting intelligence briefings. Other influential conservative voices like Karl Rove have also acknowledged that Trump has been defeated. The GOP message has essentially moved to “Biden should be prepared if Trump’s challenges fail.” (They know they’ll fail.) The ground is slipping away from Donald.

As we enter this next era, we need to address the fact that we can never unite when disinformation gaslights a sizable percentage of the population. We cannot address all the challenges humanity faces if we can’t even agree that these challenges exist.

Let’s dive into another Unpresidented week.

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Jump to

Biden Announces COVID Task Force, Trump Continues To Obstruct Transition

Day 1,390: Monday, November 9

Monday’s top stories:

Biden Projects Calm Amid The Chaos

Day 1,391: Tuesday, November 10


Tuesday’s top stories:

The New York Times Thoroughly Debunks Voter Fraud Lies, Biden Picks Klain

Day 1,392: Wednesday, November 11

Wednesday’s top stories:

Cracks Form In The GOP

Day 1,393: Thursday, November 12

President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Senator Lindsey Graham in the Oval Office – July 28, 2017. (Official White House Photo)

President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Senator Lindsey Graham in the Oval Office – July 28, 2017. (Official White House Photo)

Thursday’s top stories:

The Final Electoral Count

Day 1,394: Friday, November 13

Friday’s top stories:

The Not-So-“Million” MAGA March

Day 1,395-1,396: Saturday, November 14 – Sunday, November 15

Rantt Media and ZipRecruiter


Unpresidented // Disinformation / Donald Trump / Elections / Facebook / Joe Biden / QAnon / Social Media
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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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