Donald Trump Will De-Legitimize 2020 Presidential Election If He Loses

Even as Democrats are feeling upbeat on a scenario where Trump loses the 2020 presidential polls, incumbent Donald Trump has other plans.

Trump has signaled that he will not accept defeat. Indications are that he will stamp the whole election illegitimate in case he loses.

A prelude to that strategy showed up in a recent tweet; “The Democrats in Congress yesterday were vicious and totally showed their cards for everyone to see. The Dems are trying to win an election in 2020 that they know they cannot legitimately win!"

Trump’s 2020 campaign secretary Kayleigh McEnany also reiterated such words. She said, “desperate Democrats know they cannot beat President Trump in 2020, so instead they have embarked on a disgraceful witch hunt.”

The rhetoric works out a grand narrative that projects a triumphant Trump who is unbeatable in a legitimate election.

Electoral fraud is a favorite alibi

Even in the 2016 election, Trump played out the electoral fraud card to defend his loss of 3 million popular votes to Hillary Clinton despite winning the electoral college.

“I have won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” Trump claimed in a tweet after the election.

Trump also told a group of bipartisan lawmakers that there were 3 to 5 million illegal votes in the 2016 election. So if all legitimate votes are considered, Trump said he must be the automatic winner of the popular vote.

But self-congratulation apart, Trump never bothered to produce any evidence of such fraud despite being in power.

Studies also showed no voter fraud ever existed.

But Trump is trying to project that if he loses it was injustice perpetrated against him.

As a businessman, Trump knows the art of dubbing defeats as victories even if facts are otherwise.

Unlike business, refusing to accept defeat is dangerous in politics. Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer also hinted this problem during Congressional testimony. He said given his experience of working for Trump, “I fear if he loses the election in 2020, that there will never be a peaceful transition of power.”

Poll says Cohen more reliable than Trump

Meanwhile, a new poll showed voters believed Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen more than the president. Many voters also consider Trump as dishonest. In his testimony, Cohen called Trump a racist, con man and cheat.

Convicted Michael Cohen will go to jail in May for various charges.

The poll released on Tuesday gauged the response to Cohen's explosive testimony to Congress. Nearly 50 percent of voters sided with Cohen in the Quinnipiac University poll. Only 35 percent of respondents said they believed the president was right.

Some 86 percent of Democrats said they trusted Cohen. But 79 percent Republicans backed Trump.