Mary Trump op-ed in the New Republic: “Donald released a statement in which he essentially threatened to keep Republican voters from participating in the 2022 and 2024 elections if ‘we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020.’ He then falsely claimed that this fraud has been ‘thoroughly and conclusively documented.’ In other words, if his party is unable – by any illicit and illegal means necessary – to turn his humiliating loss to Joe Biden in 2016 into a ‘win,’ he will take his toys and go home, Republican electoral prospects (including his own!) be damned. One could be forgiven for thinking that Donald’s rationale for having state legislatures conduct fraudulent audits was to undermine voters’ faith in elections so the results – at least if a Democrat wins – would always be suspect and therefore more easily challenged by Republican-controlled legislatures. That, however, would be to underestimate his desperate need not to have lost the 2020 election. Remember the lengths he went to try to convince people that he actually won the popular vote in 2016 despite a resounding three-million-vote deficit?”

“His most recent threat, delivered via that Wednesday statement, is just another temper tantrum designed to coerce the Republican Party not simply to conduct ‘audits’ in all states but to protect his terribly fragile ego. His compulsion to punish those who fail or refuse to support his delusions overwhelms his ability to think strategically. In order to get Donald to stop holding voters hostage in the next two elections, his party is going to have to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. At this point, it’s a sucker’s bet to assume they won’t at least try in order to assuage him. But trying won’t be enough for their perpetually enabled leader. They’ll have to succeed. How ironic would it be if, by convincing a significant number of Republican voters not to engage in the democratic process, it’s Donald who ends up saving American democracy?”