TheCable

US President Donald Trump is acting true to type in his statements and positioning on the US elections. He has made accusations of fraud and vote rigging. No supporting evidence. He has asked for votes not to be counted in some states. He has no such powers. He has said that he would fight legal battles until he wins and stays on as president. The chances of having long-drawn legal battles are limited because a president will be proclaimed and sworn in on January 20, 2021 anyways.

His opponent and most-likely next president, Mr. Joe Biden, has urged for calm. He wanted the ongoing process of election to be completed and all legally cast votes to be counted. He would not engage in strong language against anyone. There is no doubt that his party and himself are preparing seriously for the legal battles and will make sure that no hurdles can stand in the way of having a president known and officially declared.

The US elections has never been this contentious or just “noisy”. I do remember several past elections for president when people would go about their usual business in the country, knowing that a president would emerge. This one is

Before the election, Trump had refused to state that he would accept the results of the 2020 contest. During the 2016 contest against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trump had also waxed strong on winning whilst, as we gathered later from books and information from his then close associates, he had no clue that victory was within reach until much later as results started to come in. He was as surprised as most people, including pollsters and the media, that he became president.

It is no surprise. In his business deals, Trump would go for the highest stakes even when he had no path in mind on getting anything at all. He would radiate confidence even when he knew that failure was around the corner. He would talk tough when he suspected that brashness could get him through.

As a president he has told thousands of lies and made thousands of misleading statements. He mastered the art of repeating statements that are false until people who initially doubted him turned round to accept the claims. Remember that Trump said President Barack Obama was not born in America. Trump said that there was no Russian interference in the 2016 elections whilst all the security and intelligence institutions of USA insisted that they had the facts that Russia did intervene.

Trump also said that he never sent his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to make payments on his behalf to prostitutes that Trump had “business” with. The lawyer went to jail for doing Trump’s dirty business and wrote a tell-all book, “Disloyal – A Memoir”, that gave much more information on Trump’s life. More famously still, Trump said that Covid-19 pandemic would soon “just go away”. The terrible consequences of his statement and actions on the pandemic continue in America and beyond.

Trump’s life of lies will stay with him as he fights for his future trying to prove that he did not lose the election even when the world witness the facts.

He will leave the White House and will continue to carry along a significant lot among the more than 70 million Americans who voted for him – they fail to see that the once revered “Emperor America” has no clothes. The ideal that USA represented for some centuries has crumbled and it may never become whole again, no thanks to Trump’s four-year presidency.

Makinwa is the CEO of AUNIQUEI Communication for Leadership