U.S. President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede that he lost the election—a stance that has received support from officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior Republican leaders such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham—reveals a blithe disregard for its foreign-policy and national security implications. Continuing to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s decisive victory (based, I emphasize, on counting the same ballots that elected lots of Republican senators and representatives) does further damage to democratic institutions and will weaken the United States relative to other countries. Those who continue to pursue this course are acting as if the United States has no vital interests to defend, faces no serious challenges to those interests, and doesn’t have to worry about a goddamned thing occurring beyond its borders.
If the United States were the only country on earth, then Trump’s head-in-the-sand delusions, lame legal challenges, refusal to help Biden’s transition team prepare for the transfer of power, and petulant 11th-hour purge of top national security officials might be written off as the final childish tantrums of a tragically flawed human being. Americans could just ride out the last two months of Trump’s Lear-like ravings and then move on.
