The other day, the US Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit by 17 states that sought to overthrow the election results of Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania. The court ruled that Texas has no right to sue other states regarding their election matter. The court’s decision dashed Donald Trump’s last hope of overturning the presidential election results. On December 14, electoral college delegations cast their votes according to the election results, and Joe Biden officially ascended to the presidency.

Courts are the main battlefield in Trump’s bid to overturn the election results, and yet he was defeated in each battle. That is what America’s legal experts have expected. US courts still attach importance to the provisions of federal laws and the democratic election procedure. Even federal judges nominated by Trump ruled against the Republican president. Before the Supreme Court laid down the ruling, Trump wrote in a tweet saying that he hoped those with wisdom and courage at the court could make the right decision. He was hinting that the six conservative judges, three of whom were nominated by him, should support him. Nevertheless, the US is a country with a long-standing democratic tradition. There is no illusion over the question of whether a political party or the law is more powerful. With the rule of law overriding political parties, all judges at the Supreme Court have to adhere to the principle of judicial independence, regardless of whether they were nominated by Trump or not. They pledge allegiance to the US Constitution and cannot allow political conflicts to make their way into the court. Although Trump admires Vladimir Putin as a leader with enormous power, under the US system, he is unable to make judges act according to his will.

At the critical moment, some US officials showed themselves to be ones who would not yield to those in power and dare to offend Trump. For example, US Attorney General William Barr, a Trump’s man, had the courage to announce that he did not detect any fraud that could affect the election results. The official in charge of cybersecurity related to the election also said that in the election this year, there was no major breach of cybersecurity. The returning officer in Georgia are Trump’s supporters who voted for him, but he firmly declared that the election results in Georgia were fair. The governor of Georgia, a Trump fan, also defended the election procedure in his state. Trump was furious and criticized him severely.

If the same thing happens in other countries, and if a president seeking re-election loses in key areas, what would the president and local officials do? In places where the party is more powerful than the law, whoever in power is always right and he would exhaust all means to alter the election results. A power-hungry man, Trump is reluctant to admit to having lost in the election. Compared with Al Gore, the Democratic Party candidate in the 2000 presidential election, Trump has no political etiquette. That year, Gore won the popular vote but only got 266 electoral votes, whereas his opponent George W. Bush got 271, winning by a small margin. After the Supreme Court announced the final election results in Florida, Gore decided to stop getting entangled in the dispute and faded out from politics. But Trump has already issued a strong hint that he will run for president again in 2024. He also bashed Barr, threatening to get rid of him. In the four years to come, he will no longer have presidential power. One wonders how he can cope with it!

(Zuo Ding-shan, columnist)

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