How Donald Trump Lost Presidency?

Graham Mourie, former captain of New Zealand’s rugby team, the All Blacks, once said, “You never defeat Wales, you just score more points than they do.” Whether he actually said it, who knows? but it’s a great description of an opponent who never knows when they’re beaten…even when they’re beaten.

The outgoing US President, Donald Trump has a variation on this theme. He didn’t lose the US election, because only votes for him were legal.

His first problem is that while he energized his supporters, he gave his political enemies a reason to get out and vote, which they did, in unprecedented numbers.

There is another reason Donald Trump lost, and it has much to do with his personality. Anyone who has worked, lived or shared a relationship with someone with similar personality traits can tell you, they fill your waking hours. Such people become the only thing you think about, the only thing you talk about. Every conversation curves back to, “did you see what he did?”, “why does he always shout?”… Being with them in any capacity is exhausting.

Like all such people, Donald Trump has been notorious for the chaos he brought to national life, his scattershot approach to everything, his anger, his tweets, his outright lies. He was always hard to avoid, but as President, he was impossible to get away from.

His performance in the first debate was typical Trump. His supporters couldn’t help but be disappointed in his constant interrupting, and not allowing Joe Biden to speak. One supporter, a doner from Texas, complained Trump didn’t give Biden a chance to make mistakes and get things wrong.

The debates were a perfect opportunity for voters to see Trump’s total lack of empathy, his inability to connect to people who lost loved ones in the Covid-19 pandemic. In the final debate Trump claimed the pandemic was nearly over, that his Administration had done well to cope with it and people should learn to live with it. With over 200,000 deaths from the disease, this brought Biden’s reply ‘people are learning to die with it.’His clownish style and demeanor led Republicans in the Primaries, and Democrats in the 2016 Presidential Election, to underestimate him. But Trump is a consummate communicator and campaigner. His victories came as a profound shock to everyone but his supporters, who loved it.

Mr Trump had looked unassailable coming out of 2019. The economy was doing well, he was delivering what his supporters wanted (even if that was simply annoying ‘Liberals’). But that was before Coronavirus hit the country and cut a swathe through the American people.

Among the most significant features of Trump’s loss was the contribution of Black women, most famously (surely not the only one) Georgia’s Stacey Abrams. She ran for Governor in 2018, narrowly losing to Trump ally Brian Kemp. That loss was guaranteed by the State removing 670,000 mostly black voters from the rolls.

Abrams has built on that showing to flip the state for the Democrats for the first time since 1992. Organisations she founded and led registered 800,000 new voters for this election. She has been credited with inspiring (and working alongside) a similar effort in the key battleground state of Wisconsin.

Many of the athletes in the US’s favourite sports are black and Latino. Back in 2017, Trump made easy mileage by vilifying Colin Kaepernick’s protests against the police killings of innocent black people. He picked fights with NFL teams over the refusal of many players to stand for the national anthem. He did the same with NBA franchises when they too protested the killing of black people. Many players responded by bankrolling voter registration drives, criticizing Trump and refusing his invites to the White House to celebrate wins.

Mr. Trump is clearly having problems with the idea that he lost the 2020 US Presidential Election. If he were a different person to the one we have all come to know, then he might reflect on why this happened. After all, turn-out was greater than has been seen since at least 1900. Although Joe Biden pulled in more votes than any US Presidential candidate in history, Mr. Trump pulled in more votes than any sitting President in US history.

Trump’s preference for loyal functionaries over intelligent people has become a disaster. The inability to control the virus (even if he wanted to) has cast him in a new light. Out of touch, incompetent and cold.

After four years, everyone is now familiar with how he does things. Just as Donald Trump won four years ago because he is Donald Trump, he lost in 2020 for the same reason. He has no empathy, no discipline, no imagination, and is unwilling to learn – all traits a successful leader needs.

Stephen Philips is senior journalist and blog writer.