An analysis of Trump’s refusal to concede

Hillary Clinton received a call from Barack Obama on election night.

It was not a call she had not anticipated, given that the 44th President of the United States of America was her top campaign surrogate in the run-up to the 2016 election.

However, the content of the conversation was not something she had envisaged weeks before when she was flying high in the polls and had the frontrunner tag slapped on her by the media.

The agreement she had reached during the conversation with her former boss led her to make an even more sacred call to her opponent.

It was a difficult but brief conversation, and she managed to power through it.

There has been no such call made, even after the election has been called for Joe Biden for almost a week now. The truth is, conceding the election was a popular topic for pundits anytime Donald Trump was the subject of discussion.

This is because losing has never really been an option for the incumbent president.

Traits of this behaviour can be traced to 2016 when prior to the elections, he alleged that the system was rigged, then publicly walked backed on those comments after he won.

If you are surprised by his reactions to the results of these elections, then you probably are not aware that Mr. Trump raised issues of illegalities after the 2016 elections- an election he won.

Perplexed? Read on to find out why.

Also, the following sub-topics are meant to capture just a few of the numerous instances where Trump has defied norms and conventions before and during his presidency.

This would enable you to understand why he has still not conceded this election and more importantly, why this behaviour is not much of a surprise.

Flirting with ‘Rocketman’

Donald Trump fell in love with ‘rocket man’. This is not speculation.

It is a statement that came right from the horse’s own mouth. Trump’s love affair with Kim Jon Un did have some features of a romantic relationship.

Mr. Trump received ‘beautiful letters’ from Kim Jon Un while he, in turn, showered the North Korean leader with flattering statements on social media and during interactions with his supporters and the press.

While Trump’s relationship with Kim is encouraging especially in diplomatic circles, it still remains un-American.

This is owing to the fact that the style of governance practised by North Korea is completely antithetical to that of the U.S.

For decades, U.S presidents have traditionally maintained a hostile posture towards Kim Jon Un and his predecessors in protest of their constant extrajudicial killings and other forms of human rights abuses meted out to their people.

Trump himself in the initial stages indulged in this customary hostility between the two countries. He even took it to another level by threatening to wipe out the country during a speech at the U.N General Assembly.

The war of words between the two leaders reached unprecedented heights with many fearing a third world war was in the offing. Then suddenly, love-struck.Trump

Tax returns

Since Richard Nixon, every major party nominee has released their tax returns. It had been one of the customs that every presidential candidate since 1973 strove to fulfil, even without being pressured to do so.

It is important to note that the main reason Nixon started this practice was to quell rumours of him being referred to as a ‘crook’.

Although the end of his presidency could be described as a gaping irony of his reasons for releasing his tax returns, it is undeniable that the practice in itself embodies the values of transparency and accountability.

Unfortunately, that practice died in 2016.

Comey’s dismissal

James Comey found out via news reports that he was fired as FBI Director. He was then in Los Angeles at the time he found out he no longer had a job with the FBI.

Comey was the first FBI Director since 1993 to be fired from his post, making him only the second FBI director in U.S history to be sacked.

The reasons given by the Trump administration were perplexing.

This is because the Trump campaign earlier applauded Comey’s decision to reopen investigations into Mrs Clinton’s email saga, just days to the election.

Fast-forward to May 2017, one of the reasons given for Comey’s dismissal was the reopening of the Clinton email investigation.

Shocking, isn’t it? Well, then, let me put your mind at ease by adding this; Comey was supervising an investigation involving Donald Trump and Russia.

Love him or hate him, Donald Trump will go down as one of the most consequential presidents in modern history.

This is because apart from his erratic and abrasive rants on Twitter, he has successfully sown seeds of mistrust in America’s electoral system.

He started by fuelling false claims of illegal immigrants voting for Clinton as an excuse for losing the popular vote in the 2016 election and now he is ending his presidency by refusing to concede an election he has lost by the same electoral college votes he won in 2016.

The dismissal of officials who have dared to renounce even an ounce of loyalty to him shows how committed he is to this agenda.

Mr Trump will leave office at the end of the day, but with the support, he has garnered from top Republicans throughout this period of denial, how does America, going forward respond to the leader of another country who says this: ‘ I do not accept the results of this election’.