US president alludes to election defeat in Trumpian slip

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has yet to admit defeat in the United States election. But with a word here, a slip there, he is raising the prospect ever more plainly.

In a tweet yesterday morning, Trump appeared accidentally to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory – before quickly reversing course to claim he won, and again push unsubstantiated claims of mass electoral fraud while ignoring soaring coronavirus cases.

“He won because the Election was Rigged,” Trump tweeted.

The first two words – coming days after a verbal slip in which Trump said "time will tell" if he remains president – were immediately seized upon as one more step towards a concession.

But the president soon made a U-turn, tweeting: “He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go.”

President-elect Biden captured 306 electoral college votes in the November 3 election – 36 more than needed to win the White House.

Senior federal and state election authorities, including a top cybersecurity agency and 16 federal prosecutors assigned to monitor the elections, have rejected claims of widespread election tampering.

Still, Trump continues to insist he will prove fraud and prevail in court.

Meantime, the leaders of nearly every country in the world have congratulated Biden on his victory, reinforcing the notion that almost no one – in the US or elsewhere – is taking the Trump legal challenges seriously.

Those challenges have been nearly universally dismissed by judges as unfounded. Yesterday, Trump insisted that “many” of them had not been filed by his team, and that his “big cases... will soon be filed”.

Reacting to Trump’s initial tweet, Biden’s newly named chief of staff Ron Klain told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it was “further confirmation of the reality that Joe Biden won the election”.

Biden’s spokesmen say he himself met yesterday in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware with his transition advisors.

Some Trump administration officials say privately that they understand that Biden won, but that the president needs time to “process” his loss. 

Others, on the outside, speculate Trump may be trying to galvanise his base to back some future commercial or media endeavour or even to support a new run for office in 2024. – AFP, November 16, 2020