By any fair measure, there was a lot on Donald Trump’s plate last week. The United States was three weeks into a government shutdown; the president was ordering legally dubious military strikes against civilians in international waters; Trump and his White House team were dealing with multiple court fights; and the Republican was preparing for a major overseas trip to Asia.
But on Wednesday night, none of these important issues was foremost on the president’s mind. Rather, he published this message to his social media platform, alerting the public to an entirely different priority:
Ask former President Barack Hussein Obama whether or not he really believes that in 2020 Joe Biden got 15 Million more Votes than he did in 2012 (65.9 vs. 81 Million). Additionally, ask him why it is that Joe Biden ‘beat’ Obama in every single Swing State with the Black Vote in 2020, even though Black Voters hate him, but in no other State? THE 2020 ELECTION WAS AN ILLEGAL SCAM/HOAX THAT THE PEOPLE OF OUR GREAT COUNTRY WILL NEVER FORGET!
Yes, despite a full plate and overlapping challenges, the incumbent president was focused on the details surrounding his election defeat from five years earlier.
While this is ridiculous, it isn’t out of character. In fact, even after Trump left for Asia, he continued to publish additional items about his discredited 2020 conspiracy theories. When addressing U.S. troops stationed in Japan, the Republican once again pushed the election nonsense known as Trump’s “big lie.”
If we were to stop here, it would be a legitimate story about an incumbent president’s unhealthy obsession and desperate desire to prioritize an imaginary grievance over his weighty responsibilities. But complicating matters further is the unfortunate fact that the broader story isn’t just about misguided rhetoric:
About a year ago, with time running out in the 2024 presidential election and early voting underway across much of the country, then-Sen. JD Vance refused to answer questions about who was the rightful winner of the 2020 race. The Ohio Republican complained at the time that political journalists were “obsessed” with the election from four years earlier. A year later, someone is “obsessed” with the 2020 race, but it’s not political journalists. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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