As told through the five stages of President Trump’s grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.
November 3 has come and gone, and now we must start to pick up the pieces. To say this American election cycle has been less than conventional is an understatement. To begin: we’re in the middle of a pandemic. Next: the election results took four agonizing days to confirm. Finally: the sitting President has (unsurprisingly) refused to recognize the results and instead seems bent on delegitimizing the American electoral system. But how has President Trump been doing? His behaviour over the past few weeks can be described through the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.
Stage 1: Denial
Night of November 3: in a stunning turn of events, President Trump did not win by a landslide before the mail-in ballots were counted. The election was left undetermined and the world held its breath.
November 4: key states, including Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, were still undecided. In response? Trump tweeted “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!” Welcome to the first stage of grief: Denial.
November 5-7: President Trump continued to spiral through denial, posting what seemed like 50 tweets an hour and racking up an equally astonishing collection of flagged tweets for misleading information. As Trump’s lead in the battleground states began to slip, so did his grasp on reality. Breitbart articles populated his Twitter page mixed with Fox News clips and the occasional “STOP THE COUNT!”.
Stage 2: Anger
November 7: the election is called for former Vice President Joe Biden. A travesty for President Trump. Let the Anger stage commence.
A press conference was called immediately at the Four Seasons Hotel to respond to the ‘clear’ electoral fraud that had occurred. Correction, at Four Seasons Total Landscaping where you can browse for fertilizer, watch Rudy Giuliani spew conspiracy theories, and pick up an adult book or arrange a cremation at the businesses next door. Did a member of the President’s legal team actually arrange for a press conference to be held in the parking lot of a landscaping firm? Yes. Welcome to 2020 everyone.
November 7-10: let the tweets continue! Trump leaned into the ALL CAPS tweets following the election loss and proclaimed “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” on November 7, truly embracing the Anger stage. Three days later, it seemed like Trump may have been prepared for the next stage of grief: Bargaining. He tweeted on November 10 “WE WILL WIN”, a stark shift from his previous declarations of victory.
Stage 3: Bargaining
November 10-17: false alarm, Trump was not prepared to bargain with his grief. On November 15, President Trump tweeted “I WON THE ELECTION” and continued to ram through his lawsuits and recounts. The President proceeded to claim the Radical Left stole the election and quoted Tucker Carlson on November 17, tweeting “DEAD PEOPLE VOTED.” Forget about faulty ballots, now we have ghosts to worry about? This election just keeps getting worse and worse. It seems like Trump might skip the Bargaining phase and move straight into Stage 4, Depression. However, given his string of business bankruptcies, it seems like Trump may not be that great at bargaining anyways.
Stage 4: Depression
According to ‘insider sources’, President Trump has been quite withdrawn since losing the election. Besides Twitter, he has not made many public appearances and seems to be hunkering down in the White House. Perhaps he is coming to terms with his own defeat or perhaps he simply can’t be bothered to run a country that doesn’t like him. Either way, it seems like he might cycle through the Anger and Depression stages for quite some time until the final lawsuit gets quashed.
Stage 5: Acceptance
Hopefully we’ll hit this stage by January 20, 2021, but based on how things are going, it seems like Acceptance will elude President Trump for the rest of his life. In all seriousness, this refusal to accept defeat and allow for a peaceful transition of power is a terrifying threat to the American electoral system…but there is one benefit that came out of this circus. We had the privilege of seeing Rudy Giuliani return to the courtroom after almost 30 years. If Rudy’s performance didn’t put a smile on your face and inspire self-confidence in your own legal fortitude, I don’t know what will.
