Excerpt from Project Syndicate article by
Ian BREMMER
No matter what US President Donald Trump says or does in response to the results of this November’s midterms, he will have faced his final popular vote. There will be further damage done to public confidence in American democratic institutions, but the institutions themselves will hold.
Once the November votes are counted, the president will refuse to accept the outcome. He will send immigration police to man the polls. He will contest the close races, challenge the integrity of voting machines and election workers (particularly in majority Democratic states), and claim that shadowy foreign agents helped the opposition win. He will also claim that Republicans would have won big had they simply done all that he demanded.
This inevitable response will further damage public confidence in the institutions of American democracy, but it will not affect the final election outcome. As in all Trump elections—the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential races, as well as the 2018 and 2022 midterms—ballots will be counted by local authorities, and the legitimate winners will claim their seats. Trump cannot change that because the US federal government has no constitutional role in the administration of American elections. The outcomes will be decided in the states.
