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Editorial

A stumbling plot

A stumbling plot
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The highly unusual campaign being run by the Trump team to reverse the results of the 2020 elections continue to become even stranger. This week, a Trump supporter and donor, Fredric Eshelman from North Carolina sued the pro-Trump 'True the Vote' group to get his money back after what he claims are disappointing results in finding voter fraud. An organisation supporting the larger Trump effort being led by his legal team, 'True the Vote' had already dropped all its legal actions and shut down the campaign by the time the disgruntled Eshelman filed his case. Eshelman has gone on to claim that the Texas-based pro-Trump group offered him a refund of one million dollars if he would drop plans to sue the group. He declined and sued for the full USD 2.5 million. This is not the first time that the Trump campaign has come under controversy for its use of the donations provided to contest the vote. It was recently revealed that not all the so-called Official Election Defense Fund' will be going towards the legal battle. Donations under USD 8,000 would be redirected for the use of the Trump campaign and the Republican Party, presumably for paying off election debts, among other uses. As noted by many who ran the math, a much greater proportion of the donations will go to anything but the 'defence of the vote or the election'. Many have criticised this as an open effort by Trump and the Republican Party to catalyse the blind trust of their supporters to fill up a post-election fund that can be used for other purposes. Dubious fund usage aside, the failure of 'True the Vote' is not unexpected. As of this weekend, Trump has filed 38 failed court actions since November 3. A common point running across the whole effort has been a complete lack of substance. As various courts have noted, the Trump legal team often moves the court with no evidence and even without specific allegations. It has been noted that the Trump team alleges voter fraud outside the courts but does not file specific allegations of such cases. Other instances include filing voter fraud claims for dozen ballots in areas where Joe Biden leads by tens of thousands of votes. The Trump campaign has consistently made claims of millions of fraudulent ballots and called for multiple recounts in key swing states and even made attempts to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters in states like Philadelphia. The most bizarre moment for the Trump legal team came after the Trump advocate Sidney Powell recounted a truly bizarre voter fraud tale that somehow related the use of old Dominion voting machines to a Venezuela-backed attempt to bring communism to America, an effort led by none other than Hugo Chavez. As historical fact notes, Hugo Chavez died in 2013 and is thus unlikely to lead any attempts to push communism into America. Apparently, this was a step too far even for the Trump campaign and Powell was subsequently pushed out of the team. All the same, there are concerns now among even close Trump allies that his attempts to scratch and claw back this election can have dire consequences for the GOP, if not the United States of America itself.

For one, Republicans are worried that Trump's claim of voter fraud in Georgia will dissuade Republican voters from voting in January when the Senate race for Georgia is to be decided. Confused chants of 'stop the vote' clearly do not favour the Republicans either. But it is unfortunate to note that the Republican Party at large still supports the general direction of the President's attempts though an increasing number have called Joe Biden the President-elect and committed once again to a peaceful transfer of power. What these developments mean is that Trump's bizarre efforts to reverse the vote may be coming to an end. While continuing his assertions of a way to victory provided by the Electoral College and the conservation majority Supreme Court, he has also come close to conceding the race on several occasions. Regardless of his efforts, there will be a new President in the White House come the end of January, What Trump's efforts will ultimately yield beyond weakening American democracy and further widening divisions, remains to be seen.

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