ABSTRACT
Although any evidence that Trump had colluded with Russia in the 2016 election remained hidden, there was ample proof that he envied Putin and admired his regime, which provided DNC documents to Wikileaks in an effort to embarrass Hillary Clinton. When the polls showed Trump behind in 2016, he sought to delegitimate the election in advance (as he had done in other career reversals). He intensified these tactics in 2020, focusing on the fear that, though he would lead in-person balloting on Election Night (the red wave), this subsequently would be eclipsed by mail ballots (the blue wave). He therefore assailed all mail ballots (despite Republican concerns that this could disenfranchise elderly voters, who tended to favor the GOP), repeatedly raising unfounded allegations of fraud. His treasury secretary helped appoint a postmaster general who reduced the ability of the USPS to process mail ballots expeditiously. And Trump and other Republicans filed multiple legal challenges to the balloting; even though they lost almost all of them, federal judges divided sharply along partisan political lines. When Biden won the popular vote by a decisive 7 million votes, Trump sought ways of winning the Electoral College.
