The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election and the Political Demise of Donald J. Trump

Submitted by Noble David H. Jackson, Jr., Ph.D. Ahmed Temple No. 37 Oasis of Tallahassee

According to researchers at the Brookings Institution and the Pew Research Center, by 2045 and/or 2050 respectively, racial minorities will comprise the majority population in the United States and the current white majority will become the minority. This is significant because the changing demographics in the country explain much of the extreme behavior seen in America over the last decade, deriving from long held fears regarding white replacement and the prospects of diminishing white privilege. After Barack Obama became president of the United States in 2008, cries of “take our country back” quickly arose from the nascent Tea Party. In short, the election of the first Black, non-white male, president of the United States clearly exacerbated anxieties among a particular demographic in the country, and paved the way for a Donald Trump to emerge as Obama’s successor.

Seizing upon the opportunity to delegitimize the first Black president, Trump peddled in racial demagoguery during Obama’s eight-year term, propagating the “birther myth,” which claimed Obama was not a U.S. citizen because he was allegedly born in Kenya. This myth permeated the media and the pressure from it became so great that Obama eventually felt compelled to produce his birth certificate to quiet the unrest. Others joined Trump asserting, pejoratively, that President Obama was a Muslim. These scenarios served as a test case for the ease at which Trump could use race as a wedge issue to divide the country if he ran for office. Trump began his 2016 campaign with the slogan “Make America Great Again,” which some translated into code for “making America white again.” After he became president, he called Mexicans rapists, African countries “shitholes,” said “all Haitians have AIDS,” repeatedly called the COVID-19 the “China virus” and “kung flu,” asserted that white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, were “good people,” told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,” frequently referred to Black women as “nasty,” and even called Vice President Harris, a “monster.” Trump repeated these demeaning characterizations of racial minorities throughout his presidency, all the while claiming that he is “the least racist person” anyone will ever meet. These factors serve as a backdrop to the November 2020 presidential election.

This article will provide brief background information on Trump prior to his presidency, reflect on his bid to win a second term as president, and examine the ensuing fallout that occurred after the election. It will also discuss Trump’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic during the campaign, the election of the first female and minority vice president of the U.S., the “big lie” promulgated by Trump Republicans after his defeat, the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, the second impeachment of Donald J. Trump, and finally, present challenges facing the nation.

Over his life and career, Donald Trump registered as both a Republican and a Democrat; however, after assessing his best odds for winning a primary contest with one of the major parties, he decided to run for president as a Republican. While he touted his record as being a successful businessman and a “self-made billionaire” to help get himself elected, it turns out that many of his business ventures failed, leading him to file bankruptcy six times between 1991 and 2009, and early on his fa8 The Desert of Florida’s Oasis Magazine

ther gave him what amounted to at least $60 million dollars, helping him to become “self-made,” according to the New York Times. Nonetheless, while being a business man afforded Trump some much desired attention, he actually gained national fame through a reality television show he starred in called “The Apprentice,” and used that platform to catapult himself into the White House. After his stunning 2016 victory over Hillary R. Clinton, Trump became the first person to serve as president of the United States without having any military or government experience.

It appears that the same management skills Donald Trump used to lead his businesses, are the same as those he used to lead the United States. This led to four years of absolutely tumultuous presidential leadership, including managing by tweeting, firing by tweeting, skipping daily national security briefings, suspicious dealings with Vladimir Putin, misleading the American people about the seriousness of the Coronavirus, failing to recognize the need for a national response to the COVID-19, an aversion to reading, and an assault on basic truth, among a host of other significant faults. Therefore, many Americans, especially those of color, eagerly awaited the opportunity to participate in the presidential election of 2020.

The campaign season included many firsts like masked debates with partitions and social distancing between the Biden-Harris and the Trump-Pence tickets, and limited national campaigning. However, what was not new were the shameless efforts by GOP governors and legislators to suppress the Democrat vote, particularly in minority communities. For instance, in October 2020 Texas Governor Gregory Abbott issued a proclamation reducing the number of drop boxes for mail-in ballots to only one per county. This move significantly impacted places like the Democrat stronghold of Harris County, where Houston is located and comprised of roughly 5 million people.

Notwithstanding these efforts, on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, Americans cast their votes across the country. In the end, the Biden-Harris ticket won the electoral college by a margin of 306 to 232, which Trump, himself, called a “massive landslide victory” in 2016 when he defeated Hilary Clinton by a similar, though smaller, margin. To add an exclamation mark to their electoral college victory, Biden and Harris also defeated Trump by over 7 million popular votes. Even with the ubiquitous voter suppression efforts discussed earlier, there was record voter participation on both sides of the political spectrum with more than 159 million Americans taking part in the election during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. What was impressive about this election, in addition to the high voter participation during the pandemic, was that African Americans and other non-White voters played such a significant role in the election’s final outcome, despite the rampant voter suppression efforts. The state of Georgia serves as a great example of the impact of the Black vote on the presidential and Senate elections, which resulted in that red state becoming blue.

The 2020 election made history for many other reasons. For the first time in U.S. history, an African American/Asian descent woman became the first female and/or woman of color to be elected vice president. Kamala Harris had served as the junior U.S. Senator from California and had been the state’s attorney general prior to her election to the Senate. She excited voters by bringing diversity and relative youth to the Biden ticket. Additionally, Harris made history by becoming the first graduate from an Historically Black College or University (HBCU), and member of the Divine Nine (specifically Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated), to be elected as vice president of

the country.

Unfortunately, there were some Americans who refused to accept Trump’s loss. In a concerted effort to deny the election’s outcome, Donald Trump and his supporters became obsessed with promulgating “the big lie” that Democrats somehow stole the 2020 election from him and Mike Pence, even though Republicans picked up Congressional seats overall. All but a few Senate Republicans and House members joined the chorus, enabling Trump by refusing to publicly concede his loss. They also claimed he had the right to work through the process to contest the election results by appealing to the courts, even though he had no credible evidence for doing so. Trump continued to repeat and tweet that the election was “rigged” and “stolen.” He even coined the phrase “stop the steal” as part of his effort to remain in power. Conse-

quently, over 60 legal challenges were filed through the courts, and all of the cases failed except for one, according to Marc Elias, a Democratic election lawyer, and that one certainly did not merit the overturning of the election. However, many of Trump’s supporters still, stubbornly, refused to accept the presidential election results.

When it became clear that the courts would not sustain his efforts to overturn the election, Trump invited his supporters to Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021 to protest Congress’s certification of the Electoral College’s results. His actions on that day will live in infamy as he encouraged his supporters, including known white supremacist and extremist groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and QAnon, to storm the Capitol, hoping this last-ditch effort would prevent Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris from being certified as the next president and vice president of the United States. This insurrection, clearly incited by Donald Trump, himself, led to congressmen and congresswomen fleeing for their safety, the deaths of several Capitol police, over 140 law enforcement officers being injured, and tremendous property damage, among other things. All the while Trump watched the attack unfold on the news and gloated over the melee. For hours he refused to do anything to call off his supporters, even as they headed for the Senate chamber chanting - “lynch Mike Pence.” The irony is that many of these white insurrectionists were rebelling against the very system that has always benefitted them and worked in their favor. Fortunately, once law enforcement restored order, to the credit of Charles Schumer (Senate Leader) and Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House), members of Congress were called back to the Capitol that same evening to continue the business of certifying the election results, officially dashing any hopes Trump had of remaining president. three U.S. presidents have been impeached and those are Andrew Johnson in the 19th century, Bill Clinton in the 20th century, and Donald Trump in the 21st century. As a result of the aforementioned egregious acts by Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters, the House of Representatives impeached him for a second time. What makes this impeachment historic is that Donald Trump is the only American president to be impeached twice, cementing his place in history. In 2019, the House of Representatives impeached him for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in connection with the Ukraine scandal. In 2021 the House of Representatives impeached him a second time for inciting the insurrection on the nation’s capital that occurred on January 6, 2021.

Admittedly, while the Trump years were politically exhaustive, the struggle continues. Many Republican-dominated state legislatures and governors across the country are still working to restrict voter access, asserting that it will reduce widespread voter fraud, a claim that is not true and has been debunked by the courts. If these efforts are successful, GOP leaders plan to limit early voting, eliminate automatic or same-day voter registration, purge voters from voting rolls, reduce the number of ballot drop boxes, and much more. According to the Brennan Center, there at least 250 restrictive voting bills currently being tracked across 43 state legislatures.

Thus, we must redouble our efforts to engage politically and address the injustices that continue to take place in our communities. We must remain vigilant, engage in political education, proactively challenge unfair legislative acts, mobilize our communities and organizations, and most importantly, come hell or high water, we must vote! We must vote in the mid-term congressional elections of 2022, we must vote in the next presidential election of 2024, and we must vote thereafter. We not only owe it to our ancestors, we owe Dr. Jackson is Associate Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate College at Florida A&M University. From 2005-2015 he served as Dept. Chairman of History, Political Science/Public Administration, Geography and African American Studies at FAMU.

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