[...] Because states run elections, voter suppression isn’t something the president can do by himself, so he’s working to encourage it. There are the usual techniques of purging voter rolls, shrinking voting times, and closing polling places in more urban, less white, more Democratic areas.
But Trump is fixated on vote by mail.
The pandemic created more challenges for voting. Mail-in ballots offer a straightforward solution, but solving it is clearly not the president’s goal.
Trump has been denouncing vote by mail for months, falsely claiming it’s a common avenue for fraud. Bill Barr claimed without evidence — or, when you think about it, logic — that foreign countries would mail in counterfeit ballots. The reason they’re making these accusations isn’t subtle. As President Trump said on Fox & Friends about expanding vote by mail, “If you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”
He’s obviously wrong about that. This is a large country and never is a long time. But normal Trumpian exaggeration aside, there’s no evidence mail-in ballots give either party an advantage.
There’s the pandemic factor to consider, though. Voting by mail is popular and Trump is on the wrong side of the issue. Why would he do that? Because he is betting that limiting vote by mail will impact Democrat-leaning urbanites more than Republican-leaning senior citizens.
And this strategy dovetails nicely with his efforts to downplay the coronavirus. Polls show that Democrats view COVID-19 as more of a serious issue than Republicans do.
[...] It’s been four tiring years. Running as an outsider is more fun than running as an incumbent. And neither he nor his supporters hate Joe Biden like they hated Hillary Clinton. Even the rallies and Fox interviews aren’t as ego-boosting as they once were. So instead of plotting an elaborate cheat or hoping for a miracle, maybe Trump turns the strategic goal of his campaign from winning the election to setting up his post-presidency and protecting himself, his kids, and their money.
I don’t buy theories that Trump doesn’t want to be president and is hoping to lose. Being president means he can tell people what to do, powerful people show him respect, he gets tons of attention, and he’s effectively above the law. You think he’d give all that up if he didn’t have to?
Trump reportedly expected to lose in 2016 and didn’t mind, because running boosted his brand and set up lucrative media opportunities. And that scenario could still be operable if he plays his cards right.
Donald Trump talks about #winning so much that people often forget that one of the defining aspects of his life have been his bankruptcies.
Going bankrupt taught Trump a very important lesson: If you fail, make sure other people pay the price.
Trump’s companies have declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy six times, and he sometimes managed to make money for himself even as the business went broke. With his Atlantic City casinos, Trump had the company pay him millions in salary and bonuses before filing for Chapter 11, stiffing contractors and creditors, and leaving his partners holding the bag. Stock and bond holders lost over $1.5 billion. And, using now-illegal accounting tricks, Trump even managed to get hundreds of millions in tax write-offs for himself.
Well, Trump’s presidency is going bankrupt. Which means that he will put himself first and get out with as much as he can, screwing over whoever he has to on the way out the door. In this scenario, after losing the election Trump would focus more on issuing pardons and setting up new business ventures than trying to remain in power.
[...] Except for this: can a president pardon himself? Lawyers are on various sides of that question, and it hasn’t been tested. Maybe we’ll find out.
Or maybe Trump will resign in January so Pence can pardon him.
[links in original omitted]
UPDATE: One link in Grossman's article is to ACLU content on voter suppression.