Unto the Breach

On Sunday, Jonathan Swan of Axios — who conducted that brutal interview of Trump back in August — reported from White House sources what every savvy observer has long predicted:

On Election Night, regardless of the results, Trump will publicly declare victory as early as he can plausibly get away with. (And as we know, Trump’s assessment of what he can plausibly get away with is a lot more broad than anyone else’s. And he is usually right.) He will then declare that any subsequent votes, via mail-in ballot or presumably even in-person tallies from late breaking counties, are fraudulent, a lie he has been trying to hammer into the American consciousness for months in preparation for just such a ploy.

(Trump denied the report, which is a sure confirmation that it’s true.)

Swan’s sources suggest that Trump will pull the trigger if he has strong leads in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, Georgia and Arizona. I’m betting he’s more aggressive than that, and doesn’t wait for the polls to close in Mountain Standard Time out in AZ.

But “declaring” himself the winner is meaningless. Trump could also declare himself a penguin. Wouldn’t make it so.

It will fall to the much-maligned mainstream media, influential public authority figures, reasonable politicians on both the Democratic and Republican sides (let me know…