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Pearl River The Monday Night Football expression that “it’s not over until the fat lady sings,” has thankfully been retired given the lack of appreciation for opera in our current culture and the increasing sensitivity towards different body types, thanks goodness. Nonetheless, despite all of the theories, conjectures, and people waking up screaming in the night, it is increasingly clear that the “fat man is singing.” We already knew it was over, and, without saying so yet, so does he.
Have no doubt about it, I’m talking about President Trump and the fact that he is increasingly transitioning to his new title, former President Trump. The evidence is everywhere.
CNN and virtually every other news outlet, even finally the New York Times, called the last states, Georgia for Biden, and North Carolina for Trump in recent days. The map is fully colored in now. Biden has 306 electoral votes, and Trump has 232. Biden’s margin of victory in the popular vote is more than 4.6 million and for a change we have a new president who won a majority of the US electorate, as Biden polled 50.8% to Trump’s 47.2%.
As the widely repeated joke goes, “there’s no way for Trump to get to 270 without losing 25 pounds,” and he knows it. Disregard Twitter, because that is just Trump keening to his base. While in mourning over his loss, he didn’t appear in public for a week. When he did so, his reported comments, when asked if he would concede, was “time will tell.” For President Trump, that’s what I would call a mature and measured response.
A couple of thousand of his supporters came to Washington, DC to rally in his support. Trump counts the crowd, even if he embellishes the numbers later to balloon them more to his liking. He has had big crowds and rallies with tens of thousands. He had seen protests against him number hundreds of thousands. A couple of thousand? Trump knows now that he can’t pin his hopes on the street either. This is a president who addressed an anti-abortion rally on the Washington Mall. This time, he drove by with the window up and waved at what was left of his hardcore believers willing to march on DC for him.
His lawsuits are being dismissed for lack of evidence routinely now. His lawyers are jumping ship. Jones Day, the firm that has collected more than $20 million on these and other cases for Trump over recent years, has bailed as his representative.
He knows it’s over. The fat man is singing in the West Wing. Soon, we’ll all hear the song.