There are those good old phrases that come to their senses from time to time. The one that sticks best in the United States these days describes Donald Trump struggling with the presidential election results “like a devil in holy water.” It hurts!
I have seen it and repeated it several times over the past four years: Donald Trump has succeeded, without his supporters calling him to account, in deceiving everything and its opposite.
Again on Friday, in the Rose Garden of the White House, describing his opposition to the reestablishment of national lockdown to combat the pandemic, he almost escaped talking about the Biden presidency or, in his words after some mumbling, ” no matter what happens in the future ”.
Not as unreasonable as some believe, he suspects that the end is approaching, but persists in haranguing his supporters, stoking their mistrust of Democrats, as in this email from his campaign received yesterday morning: “When every LEGAL vote will be counted, OUR President will have won AND AWAY over sleeping Joe. “Followed, a few lines later, by a less pompous:” Contribute $ 5 please. “
LIVE IN ILLUSION
His messages on Twitter follow allegations of fraud – systematically discredited by the electoral authorities of the counties or states concerned – or the threats of legal proceedings which deflate as soon as the supposed witnesses finally turn out to be a “guy who heard a guy who says that … ”.
Let’s assume it’s not just a Machiavellian plot and that he still believes in it. One more effort, let’s put ourselves in his place! To read those who have been around him for a long time – his niece Mary, for example, or his personal ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen – his alleged success as a real estate developer was built on pretenses and trompe l’oeil. .
However, NBC gave him an exceptional platform in 2004 by placing him in the animation of The Apprentice, presenting it as the embodiment of American success. Anyone would have come to believe it.
PRESIDING A PARALLEL REALITY
He managed to ride that reputation to the White House, where he could – should, in his opinion – have stayed until the end of a second term. While digging through my notes last week, I came across an October 2019 article from Washington post.
The very first line calmly stated that “President Trump is on the fast track to easy re-election.” Even if he was bogged down, at the time, in his impeachment trial and the clumsy management of the Syrian crisis, various economists predicted, despite everything, an electoral triumph in November 2020.
Something to strengthen the fantasies of any enlightened. We know the rest: the pandemic which strikes, the economy which collapses and Trump who loses the presidency … the fault, as he repeats it, with the Chinese and their coronavirus.
A man who describes himself as “a stable genius” probably needs little to see himself as the victim of a huge plot. The mystery lies with all those he manages to cheat with the same mirage.
IF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION HAD TAKEN PLACE IN OCTOBER 2019 …
“Trump will win 55% of the popular vote next year, barring a significant downturn in the economy. “
– Oxford Economics
- Joe Biden won 50.9% of the popular vote against 47.3% for Donald Trump.
“The president will win easily next year if the economy does not stumble badly and, in fact, he will accumulate a bigger margin in the electoral college than in 2016.”
– Moody’s Analytics
- At 2e quarter of 2020, the economy “stumbled” by 9.1%.
- 20.5 million jobs were lost in April.
- The unemployment rate fell from 3.5% in February to 14.7% in April 2020.
“Trump will win re-election next year with 354 electoral votes. “
– Trend Macrolytics
- Biden got his hands on 306 Electoral College votes versus 232 in Trump.
(Source: Washington Post, October 18, 2019)