Trump's Futile Fight To Overturn Election Loss Breeds Turmoil, Risk

In the two weeks since it became clear that President Trump lost the election to Joe Biden — a period bookended by befuddling press conferences from his longtime lawyer, Rudy Giuliani — the president has made it clear that he will spend his remaining days in the White House in the same way he spent much of his term in office: fighting.

Trump has had a long history of punching his way back from losses, like his bankruptcies and failed businesses, in a way that has allowed him to continue branding himself as a winner. But the 2020 election is the biggest, most public loss he has suffered, and he is battling to be able to walk off the stage with a grip on the base of the Republican Party, and the ability to continue to monetize his brand.

Most presidents spend their final weeks in office trying to cement their legacies. But Trump, who has mused privately about running in 2024, risks looking like a sore loser in continuing to falsely claim the election was rigged against him. And his latest extraordinary tactics have alarmed some Republicans who see him as doing damage to confidence in free and fair elections.