Trump-TV. I believe on the night of the election in 2016, he knew he was going to lose the election, just like we all did. He was overheard saying something like, “I’m going to start my own TV channel. So even when I lose, it’s not really losing because I’ll come out ahead.”
I think there is little doubt he was very disappointed, even devastated, to win the election. He obviously came around to promoting himself through the office, but he originally had ZERO plans to win this thing.
How about Putin?
I’ve been hearing that the lawsuits are going nowhere and I’m glad, but I guess I’m more worried about pressure being applied to GOP election officials in key states. Being around trump has been described as running into a buzz saw. In the past 4 years he’s gotten his way multiple times. Even just an annoyed call from him to a private company would get the CEO acquiescing to whatever he wanted. It just seemed like every time trump screamed I WANT IT people would just crumple, and he still seems to have influence among the GOP since most are encouraging him to “fight” and insisting that the election has been “stolen” from the rightful victor (gag).
In past years it has always seemed that whenever anyone ran for president and lost, they were considered political toast, but this time they’re telling him to keep trying for 2020 and somehow also to run again in 2024.
Also scares me that he’d win if he did run in 2024.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he just licenses his name to OANN. They’re already positioning (with his help) as the upstart destined to replace the disloyal Fox News.
I dunno. Check out Newsmax TV.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/12/media/fox-news-newsmax-reliable-sources/index.html
Oh, he will have a plan. In two weeks.
Whatever network he ends up on, I’m sure it will have reruns of “The Adventures of Hercules” and “Andromeda.”
Yeah I just read a story about Newsmax. They’re strategy is intentional and thoughtful - the longer they keep hope alive that Trump “could” win, Trump’s fans are flocking over there, and they are chipping away some Faux News viewers who are still bitter for them telling the early truth about AZ going to Biden.
Where’s our rimshot emoticon? Maybe this will work: 
There will be a bidding war between the nuttier than Fox networks to snare Lord Dampnut. Any of them would be happy to change their name to Trump TV.
That reminds me of a parody story that the internet took to be real, shortly after trump moved into the WH-- that trump was angry that the WH cable didn’t have the “Gorilla Network”. Confused aides who never heard of that rushed to appease him by piecing together footage of gorilla documentaries and streaming them to his TV. Then trump complained it was boring because the gorillas weren’t fighting often enough, so the aides rushed to put together only footage of gorillas fighting.
It’s hilarious because it’s easy to see why people took it to be real 
I still need somebody to talk me off the ledge.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/12/politics/trump-legal-electoral-college/index.html
President Donald Trump’s campaign strategy increasingly appears to be to cast enough doubt over vote counts so it can find judges to block states from certifying the choice its voters made, according to elections experts, including longtime Republican lawyer-turned-CNN analyst Ben Ginsberg. The Electoral College doesn’t formally select the president until December 14, with a key deadline December 8.
This strategist thinks they’re trying to force it to the Supreme Court. Very unlikely to work but it still scares me. This shouldn’t even be happening. More GOP should be speaking out against this at the very least. The media keeps calling trump’s attempts a long shot, but it’s still giving the impression that there hasn’t been a winner yet and the election is still ongoing.
These lawsuits are filled with fail. I’m not worried.
And see:
That’s very evidently been their strategy all along - disrupt the election, cast doubt on the result, and put a favorable Supreme Court in place to hand them the win when it got thrown to the courts. What stymied them was simply the overwhelming number of Biden votes and the refusal of lower courts to tolerate blatant bullshit.
I guess I didn’t anticipate it coming in the form of trying to force states to install electors that would support trump and all vote against the popular vote. And sue to stop certification.
I thought it would only go before the SC if it turned out to be like the Florida 2000 situation (not that that would be democratic either). Silly me.
I think Bush v. Gore was wrongly decided, but we have to remember the situation then was much more chaotic than what’s happening now. Different standards of recount/review were used by different counties in the same state (Florida). Things were dragging out and there was no clear victor.
In contrast, we have orderly counting by every state now, and nothing unusual happening that would in any way compel the courts to intervene. We have a clear winner. There is no controversy. Even conservative justices will be reluctant to overturn the will of the people as a favor to Trump. They know that the Court’s reputation took a hit in Bush v. Gore, and I cannot see more than one or two justices willing to go out on that limb under these circumstances.
They don’t have to. They just have to provide a smokescreen for the legislatures to invoke 3 USC s2, say the decision on Election Day failed to provide a clear winner, and appoint Trumpist electors.
Is that legal? In one way yes it is, in another maybe not, but what are YOU gonna do about it? They’ll read out the votes in the Senate and declare Trump the victor.
Apologies if this has already been discussed in this thread or elsewhere, but I need some of you smart Doper folks to explain something to me:
Why do you think that Trump fired Esper and the other senior Pentagon officials and replaced them with his lackeys? Is he planning something that will weaken our position internationally? Is it so these new appointees will now be eligible for fatter government pensions?
As usual, Trump’s move has me baffled. Thoughts, anybody?
trump tweet from about an hour ago. He is really losing it:
“REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN.” @ChanelRion @OANN
For those of you who haven’t kept up with all the crazy right-wing voter fraud conspiracy theories:
Well, I’m assuming he’s trying to get even more sycophants close to him to further his aims to hold onto power, but I may just be panicking. He does have a history of insisting on having only loyalists surrounding him.