Trump’s Legacy is based on The Big Lie. Trump’s big lie was that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election, and that the only way Trump lost was because of a rigged election which was stolen from him. The big lie lives on, as you well know.

Some historians of American history asked themselves if Donald Trump would every go.  They wondered if he would try and find a way to stay in office regardless of the outcome.  One historian that speculated about this is Laurence Douglas, the James T. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College.  In his book, Will He Go?: Trump and Looming Election Meltdown in 2020, what it would look like if an American president behaved badly and refused to accept the results of the election. Donald Trump used every resource available to him to change the outcome of the election.  In addition to the 62 lawsuits he filed, he also directly appealed to state legislators, governors and the Secretary of State of Georgia to get them to change the vote to him.

The Weak Authoritarian

Lawrence Douglass writes that because Trump was a weak authoritarian, he would be unable to control the outcome of an election.  Douglass says:

Most authoritarians gather and consolidate power by building strong alliances with a nation’s coercive apparatus—the military, the intelligence services and the justice community. Trump has done none of this. (Douglass 2020, p 15.)

Trump spent four years deriding the military,  disparaging the intelligence services and although he had Attorney General William Barr in his corner, the rank-and-file lawyers of the Justice Department considered Trump contemptible (Douglass 2020).

            Trump acted like many of the authoritarians he admired including Putin, Erdogan and Oban.  Although he used strong-arm tactics at rallies and at the January 6 rally at the Capital, in the end they didn’t work.  Even though the mob that attacked the Congress disrupting the reading of the state Electoral Votes, the Congress reconvened later on that day, and completed its task. Mike Pence announced that Joe Biden won the election and was the 46^th President of the United States.

Trump’s big lie rules Republican politics even with Trump out of the White House.  The purpose of the Big Lie was to undermine the election process in the United States and convince the American people that something needed to be done to change the outcome of the election.  In Trump’s mind, he couldn’t have lost the election, unless it was stolen from him.  Trump made it clear that he wouldn’t accept defeat, nor would be concede that he lost the election. As many scholars have pointed out, Trump is a weak authoritarian.  Instead of being able to rig an election, as strong authoritarians are able to do, Trump has to claim that someone else (the opponent) rigged the election. He even had to seek the help of a foreign leader…and that got him impeached.

All Star Game

            Trump’s legacy has warped many state legislatures to such an extent that Major League Baseball decided to move the 2021 All Star Baseball Game from Georgia after the state legislature passed restrictive voting laws.  Furthermore, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, most states have filed or passed nearly 200 bills to restrict voting access.  The Georgia case is a classic example of historical attempts to suppress voting, especially of black voters.

Trump is gone.  Although some claim he still has power, it is based on the big lie.  He is in his bunker in Mar a Largo and from there he is trying to influence the politics of republicanism.  Yes, there are many in the Republican party who are seeking Trump’s affirmation when and if they run in the 2022 or 2024 elections.  Donald Trump lost the presidency and the respect of millions of Americans. He’s gone, gone, gone.