This is something I've been saying now for weeks if not months to friends. In 2016, Donald Trump peddled various versions of the same claim: his election victory would be stolen from him. When he actually won, that suddenly changed to variations of the claim he had won the popular vote but voter fraud made him look like the loser.
And now, four years later, he's doing it again, viciously attacking balloting by mail with a fusillade of lies, without a shred of evidence, claiming it's subject to massive fraud. Thus if he loses in November, then he'll immediately claim he was the winner and that fraud stole away his victory. In short, Trump is such a narcissist he could never concede he actually lost.
If this just turns out to be blather, and he leaves the White House willingly nonetheless, then it's just more Trumpian noise, then it matters little. However, if this happens and he refuses to leave the White House, if he insists he's still President and even stages a fraudulent second-term inauguration, then the country is in serious trouble.
The best way to weaken Trump's claim is for him to overwhelmingly lose this November. If he only loses by one state with results like the 2000 race, then problems almost certainly will result. But if he loses by a half dozen states, with results more like 2008, then his claim becomes all but laughable.
If the latter happens, then I think the GOP leadership will work behind the scenes to pressure Trump out of the White House. Because, for them, an attempted Trump coup would be an indelible stain on the Republican Party they will want to avoid at all costs.
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