Short Except from the Atlantic Magazine said:Let us not hedge about one thing. Donald Trump may win or lose, but he will never concede. Not under any circumstance. Not during the Interregnum and not afterward. If compelled in the end to vacate his office, Trump will insist from exile, as long as he draws breath, that the contest was rigged.
Trump’s invincible commitment to this stance will be the most important fact about the coming Interregnum. It will deform the proceedings from beginning to end. We have not experienced anything like it before.
Maybe you hesitate. Is it a fact that if Trump loses, he will reject defeat, come what may? Do we know that? Technically, you feel obliged to point out, the proposition is framed in the future conditional, and prophecy is no man’s gift, and so forth. With all due respect, that is pettifoggery. We know this man. We cannot afford to pretend.
Trump’s behavior and declared intent leave no room to suppose that he will accept the public’s verdict if the vote is going against him. He lies prodigiously—to manipulate events, to secure advantage, to dodge accountability, and to ward off injury to his pride. An election produces the perfect distillate of all those motives.
The Atlantic article is profoundly disturbing in no small part because it predicts a post-election nightmare when Mr. Trump refuses to concede defeat. Unfortunately, considerable evidence points to that not only being the most likely future for America post-election, but also reveals that getting Mr. Trump out of office will most likely not be anywhere nearly as easy as calling in the military to escort him from the White House. To be blunt, Mr. Trump has the Constitutional and political means to prevent the election from being decided. Come January, when the next president is scheduled to take the oath of office, it seems likely, the issue of who won the election will still be in doubt.
The article is a long one, but if you want to know what the most likely outcome of this election will be, then it is a must read.
The Election That Could Break America