Even though it has been seven months since the U.S. elections were concluded, Trumpist Republicans still believe that the elections were somehow stolen. Conspiracy theories that the elections were rigged and that Trump will return to his seat as president in August are abound these days. According to rumors circulated through the Trumpist grapevine, the presidency will be returned to Trump by a unanimous vote of the U.S. Supreme Court. It is also being said that Trump very much believes in this conspiracy theory and is commissioning many figures to spread propaganda for this end.
In a Twitter post by the New York Times’ White House reporter Maggie Haberman, she announced that Trump announced to his close circle that he expects to be reinstated as president in August. Journalist Charles Cooke, an important figure of American conservatism, also said that his sources confirmed this rumor in his article titled "Maggie Haberman is Right" in the National Review magazine. According to Cooke, Trump also thinks that senators David Perdue and Martha McSally, who lost in the elections, will return.
A large portion of the 74 million who voted for Trump argue that the elections were, indeed, “stolen.” Hardline Trumpists, on the other hand, have waged war against Republicans who consider the elections as legitimate. Trumpist lawmakers in the House of Representatives dismissed Liz Cheney, one of the leading figures of the anti-Trump wing, from her position as chair of the Republican Conference. Cheney being given the boot was an indication that Trump solidified his influence over the Republican Party.
Even if Trump doesn’t run in 2024, he holds the power to determine the presidential candidate of the Party. In the Trump era, U.S. relations with its allies suffered severe blows. Liberal Europe and Global Europe are extremely perturbed by Trump’s sway in the Republican Party. Democrats have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives and Senate, and this arithmetic might change by the 2022 elections. This possibility might endanger Joe Biden’s foreign policy when he calls on Europe to stand with the U.S. in a bloc against China and perhaps Russia, too. 'Liberal Europe' may be hesitant to put all its eggs in America’s basket, given the electoral polarization in the civil war atmosphere and under the shadow of Trump’s prolonged power.
Another hot-button issue in Washington is the discourse of some Trumpists that is reminiscent of a military coup. Trump's first National Security Advisor, retired general Michael Flynn, referenced the military coup in Myanmar in one of his speeches. In Myanmar’s November elections, the military-supported party has suffered a grave defeat; and on February 1, the army had conducted a coup, claiming that the elections had been rigged. Flynn commenting that a similar situation should transpire in the U.S. have been perceived as a call for a coup d'état. After serving as an intelligence officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, Flynn was appointed as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012. He was then sacked and forced to retire in 2014 for his radical anti-Democratic tendencies.
Retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor, who was appointed a member of the "West Point Military Academy Advisory Board" in addition to the chief advisor position at the Pentagon in the Trump’s final months, also penned an article advocating that U.S. troops should take helm of political leadership. Published on May 15 on the “American Greatness” website, known for its hardline pro-Trump stance, MacGregor headlined his article as, “Soldiers of France vs. Globalism: Is a military coup really feasible in democratic France? If France wants to remain a sovereign nation, the answer may be yes. What does that mean for America?” According to Macgregor, it was the right move for many former French soldiers to give President Macron an ultimatum in the form of an open letter. Macgregor stressed the need for a similar action in the United States. Sebastian Gorka, also one of Trump's former advisers, wrote on the same site on June 2, that if Trump is elected president in 2024, he would need to strongly step up his game against the "deep state, Liberals, Silicon Valley, social media, especially Twitter, Facebook, Google."
In a nutshell, politics in America are becoming increasingly polarized. Biden also seems to be discouraged from finding working ground with with mainstream moderate Republicans in the U.S. Congress.
