DEFYING THE NORMAL
What explains Trump's aberrant way of acting?
In any normal election of the past century, there is an orderly transition process from one Administration to another. Congress certifies the tally of the Electoral College without any protest. The loser calls the winner to offer congratulations. The winner goes about trying to find competent and honest candidates for the Presidential Cabinet, candidates who are carefully vetted and then announced and who are then briefed by cooperative outgoing Administration officials. The inauguration is orderly and respectful with the outgoing President in attendance and publicly offering congratulations to the incoming President. The outgoing President leaves in a provided plane to his chosen destination. The incoming President rides and sometimes walks down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House and takes control of his Administration, his officials and of the several branches of the U.S. military.
In 2021, that orderly pattern was disrupted by Donald Trump who left the White House that morning (though he considered not relinquishing the White House to the Bidens), avoiding the Inauguration platform and flew south to his residence in Florida without greeting the new President at the White House or attending the Inauguration ceremony. In fleeing Washington, he illegally took with him countless boxes of Presidential documents, some of which were marked “Classified”, some of which were marked “Top Secret”. He continued his Podcasts, criticizing and denouncing the Administration that had taken over.
Trump had no reason to deviate from the normal pattern of transitioning the Presidency to the Biden Administration. Four years earlier, President Obama had handed over his Presidency to Trump in the normal way. It was just his personal pique at losing that prompted Trump to act in this juvenile way as a sore loser. His previous actions as President, including his morning Podcasts in which he ranted against his detractors, were equally as juvenile and deviant. Neither Obama nor Biden acted like this. What prompted Trump to act like this? Why couldn’t he act maturely as others before him followed the normal pattern of transition?