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Washington – President Donald Trump he left numerous clear indications that he would try to destroy everything before he left the White House. The clues lie in a life where he has refused to admit defeat. They include a presidency marked by raw, furious rhetoric, conspiracy theories and a kind of camaraderie with ‘patriots’ from the ranks of right-wing extremists. The clues increased at the speed of light as Trump lost the election and refused to admit it.
The highlight came on Wednesday when Trump supporters, urged by the president himself to go to the Capitol and fight “with passion” against a “stolen” election, occupied the building in a violent showdown that killed a Capitol policeman and others. . four people.
The crowd arrived so emboldened by Trump’s rhetoric that many attendees used live video platforms to show that they were destroying the venue. They thought Trump would support them. After all, it was about a president who, in response to an unveiled far-right plan to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor last year, responded, “Maybe it was a problem, maybe not.”
During his presidency and his life, as evidenced by his own words and actions, Trump hated losing and did not admit it when it happened. He presented bankruptcies as successes, stumbling blocks as great achievements, the taint of deposition as the act of heroism of a martyr.
Then came the biggest defeat: the elections and with it the desperate machinations that many politicians likened to the practices of “banana republics” or the “Third World,” but were fully American in the twilight of Trump’s presidency.
Often with a wink or a nod over the past four years, sometimes more direct – “we love you,” he told the Capitol Hill crowd – Trump made a joint cause with fringe elements eager to support him in return for his respect.
That formed a flammable mixture when most was at stake. The elements were added in plain sight, often in messages via Twitter. On Friday, Twitter canceled Trump’s account, denying the president his favorite megaphone, “given the risk of new incitement to violence.”
“I wish I could say we couldn’t get a glimpse of it,” said the president-elect Joe Biden of the assault on the Capitol. But it is not true. We got a glimpse of it. “
Mary Trump saw it from her unique vantage point as Trump’s psychologist and niece.
“It’s a very old emotion that he has never been able to process since he was a little boy: terrified of being in a losing position, terrified of being held accountable for his actions for the first time in his life,” Mary Trump said. PBS a week after the election.
“He’s in a position to be a loser, which in my family was definitely… the worst possible,” he said. “So he feels trapped, desperate … getting furious.”
The post-election problems were predictable because Trump had basically said what would happen if he lost.
Months before the first vote was cast, Trump said the system had been rigged and plans to vote by mail were fraudulent, attacking the process so incessantly that he could have hurt his own chances by discouraging his supporters from posting by mail. to vote. . Trump refused to guarantee the country that he would respect the result, something that has not even been asked of other presidents.
There was no evidence prior to the election that it would be tampered with, no evidence after alleged mass fraud or major errors that Trump and his legal team advocated in numerous lawsuits that judges appointed by Republicans, Democrats or Trump himself consistently rejected, often call them absurd. The Supreme Court, with three judges appointed by Trump, also rejected the argument.
But even that didn’t stop him.
“I hate defeat,” he said in a video in 2011. “I can’t stand defeat.”
But in the end, the election results left him without resources, except for his fan base, who couldn’t bear defeat either.
Trump’s record of endorsing false and often racist conspiracy theories with roots in the far right is long.
He has backed supporters of QAnon, a complicated pro-Trump conspiracy theory, saying he didn’t know much about his supporters, “other than I understand they love me very much” and that “he’s gaining popularity.”
QAnon targets an allegedly anonymous senior government official known as “Q”, who shares information about an alleged “deep state”. The FBI has warned that extremists driven by conspiracy theories, such as QAnon, are terrorist threats.
In 2017, Trump blamed “both parties” for the fatal violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, the site of a clash between groups of white supremacists and those protesting against them. He said there were “good people” on both sides.
In a debate with Biden, Trump declined to criticize the neo-fascists Proud Boys. Instead, Trump said the group should “ stay away and be prepared. ” That comment caused a storm, and a day later Trump attempted to withdraw.
Trump also did not condemn the actions of a young man accused of shooting two people and injuring a third during protests in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin over the summer. Kyle Rittehouse has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In October, the president decided not to criticize the people who planned to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.
“When our leaders meet, encourage, or fraternize national terrorists, they legitimize their actions and are complicit,” Whitmer said. “If they encourage and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit.”
For Mary Trump, the way her uncle was defeated helped pave the way for the poisoning she said would happen in November.
Republicans in the Senate and House races fared better than him, increasing the minority in the lower house and retaining their majority in the Senate until Georgia’s second round tipped the balance. towards the Democrats.
His defeat on November 3 was his, not the party’s. “So you can’t blame anyone else,” his niece said. “I think he’s probably in a position where no one can help him get out emotionally and psychologically, which will only make things worse for the rest of us.”
And the worst came.
Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Extremism, called Wednesday’s attack “the logical conclusion of rampant extremism and hatred” during Trump’s presidency.
“If you’re surprised, you haven’t paid attention,” said Amy Spitalnick of Integrity First, a civil rights group involved in lawsuits over the violence in Charlottesville.
On Thursday night, after months of provocation, Trump appeared to be attempting a unifying message by saying in a video, “This moment requires reconciliation.”
But on Friday, the outgoing president took care of his “great American patriots” and demanded that they be treated fairly. He also said he will not attend Biden’s inauguration.
He admitted that his presidency was coming to an end, but did not admit defeat or could not admit it.
Of all the insulting nicknames he has given his political rivals – sleepy, tearful, corrupt, crazy, mindless, weird, pencil neck, watermelon head, out of control – no one intended to hurt more than ‘loser’. And nothing, it seems, hurts him more than when he’s the loser.