Trump's trying to slap people he doesn't like. He loves that he's scaring everyone. He knows he's lost, and all his chief advisers know it too. The point is to terrify Democrats and rile up the faithful cutlists, and he's succeeding in doing that.

1/ https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/19/politics/trump-democrats-election/index.html

In Trump's own head, there's nothing more than that going on. He's a moron, and he's a sadist, and he craves attention, so the fear and excitement he's generating are all he cares about. He knows he lost, but he's lashing out to hurt people as a consolation prize.

2/

There are some strategists (in the Republican Party and the Kremlin) who like that these actions damage democracy, so their long game is to hope this particular effort (which they know will fail) will at least create further doubts about, and cracks in, Western democracy.

3/

Anyone who continues to spread coup porn plays into Trump's hands, and the Kremlin's, and the Republican Party's.

It's okay to ridicule, but the more credence you give these attempts, the more they succeed.

4/

It's also all an obvious distraction from the pandemic, and from Trump's continued dismantling of the executive branch, neither of which stories are getting nearly the attention they deserve.

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