Trump delivers post-poll chaos in US as his supporters march in DC

It was John Ellis Bush, aka Jeb, the former governor of Florida, whose father and brother were respectively the 41st and 43rd presidents of America, who in 2016, aptly defined Mr Donald John Trump.

During one of the Republican Party presidential debates, Jeb described his pugnacious rival as “the chaos candidate”. On the campaign trail and in the White House, Mr Trump has duly vindicated Mr Bush.

So in August, in the first of my two pieces on the lead-up to the USA’s November 3 presidential election, I wrote that President Trump would turn the first debate with Democratic Party challenger Joe Biden into a circus.

He delivered. Over 90 minutes, he interrupted Mr Biden 72 times, quite apart from shouting at, and insulting him, attacking his family and peddling falsehoods.

The viewing American public and global audience were outraged and scandalised. But Mr Trump celebrated the chaos and boasted that he won the debate.

Mail-in ballots

He pegged his defence of his interruptive performance on the dubious claim that Mr Biden, who he thoroughly frustrated, and moderator Chris Wallace, whose guidance he ignored time and again, ganged up on him.

 In the second piece I argued that President Trump had laid ground for rejection of the results of the presidential poll should he lose. Railing against mail-in ballots as prone to fraud, Mr Trump said he could only lose the election if it was rigged.

On the stump, time without number, he declared huge crowds could not be turning up to send him to defeat by “the worst presidential candidate in history”. No, he would only lose if the Democrats stole his victory.

Trump has delivered the post-poll chaos. Four years ago last Monday, President Barack Obama, a man Mr Trump publicly despised and demeaned, invited President-elect Donald Trump to the White House.

Reason? To set in motion the peaceful and time-honoured transfers of power from the incumbent to the incoming administration.

Prior to this, Mrs Hillary Clinton, the Democratic challenger whom he had savaged throughout the campaign as nasty, criminal and corrupt, called to congratulate Mr Trump on his election as the USA’s 45th president.

Mr Trump has neither acknowledged Mr Biden’s win nor conceded defeat. He has not called Mr Biden to congratulate him, nor has he invited him to the White House to set in motion the transfers.

He has refused to cooperate with Mr Biden’s transition team and is instituting myriad court cases seeking to annul or stop certification of Mr Biden's victory. He has stalled the transition and thrown the process into turmoil.

But why? One, President Trump has an ego the size of a small planet. He loves and identifies himself with winning but loathes losing and losers. The president demands total and unquestioning loyalty. Always, it is his way or the highway.

Two, Mr Trump pushes the envelope; has sharp business practices; and, often, blurs the lines between legal and illegal, honest and dishonest, fact and fiction.

Put another way, the president is an inveterate liar. He employs beautiful language for his favourites and foul descriptions for people, especially women, he does not like.

Chaos continues

But, while he claims and preaches success, Mr Trump has suffered six bankruptcies, avoids paying taxes, is in debt and faces accusations of using his office to profit his private businesses.

That is, he is not an altogether successful or honest businessman. So the man who campaigned as an outsider going to drain the swamp of corruption in Washington is no different from the politicos he despises.

Last, but which could well be first, it was New York’s 14th District representative, Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who nailed it in July. Trump had said he had no racist bone in his body. Her red-hot retort? “You're right, Mr President. You don’t have a racist bone in your body. You have a racist mind in your head, and a racist heart in your chest.”

The chaos continues. This weekend, supporters trusting Mr Trump had his victory stolen, will march on Washington DC. Will the white supremacists stand back, stand by or get sucked in?

  [email protected]