2020 presidential election
Defeated by Biden
Breaking with precedent, Trump filed to run for a second term within a few hours of assuming the presidency. He held his first reelection rally less than a month after taking office and officially became the Republican nominee in August 2020.
In his first two years in office, Trump’s reelection committee reported raising $67.5 million and began 2019 with $19.3 million in cash. By July 2020, his campaign and the Republican Party had raised $1.1 billion and spent $800 million, losing their cash advantage over Biden. The cash shortage forced the campaign to scale back advertising spending.
Trump campaign advertisements focused on crime, claiming that cities would descend into lawlessness if Biden won. He repeatedly misrepresented Biden’s positions and shifted to appeals to racism.
Starting in the spring of 2020, Trump began to sow doubts about the election, claiming without evidence that the election would be rigged and that the expected widespread use of mail balloting would produce massive election fraud. When, in August, the House of Representatives voted for a $25 billion grant to the U.S. Postal Service for the expected surge in mail voting, he blocked funding, saying he wanted to prevent any increase in voting by mail, creating a crisis in the Postal Service. He repeatedly refused to say whether he would accept the results if he lost and commit to a peaceful transition of power.
Biden won the election on November 3, receiving 81.3 million votes (51.3 percent) to Trump’s 74.2 million (46.8 percent) and 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232.
Rejection of Results
At 2 a.m. the morning after the election, with the results still unclear, Trump declared victory. After Biden was projected the winner days later, Trump stated that “this election is far from over” and baselessly alleged election fraud.
He and his allies filed many legal challenges to the results, which were rejected by at least 86 judges in both the state and federal courts, including by federal judges appointed by Trump himself, finding no factual or legal basis. His allegations were also refuted by state election officials.
After Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Chris Krebs contradicted Trump’s fraud allegations, Trump dismissed him on November 17. On December 11, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case from the Texas attorney general that asked the court to overturn the election results in four states won by Biden.
Trump withdrew from public activities in the weeks following the election. He initially blocked government officials from cooperating in Biden’s presidential transition. After three weeks, the administrator of the General Services Administration declared Biden the “apparent winner” of the election, allowing the disbursement of transition resources to his team. Trump still did not formally concede while claiming he recommended the GSA begin transition protocols.
The Electoral College formalized Biden’s victory on December 14. From November to January, Trump repeatedly sought help to overturn the results, personally pressuring Republican local and state office-holders, Republican state and federal legislators, the Justice Department, and Vice President Pence, urging various actions such as replacing presidential electors, or a request for Georgia officials to “find” votes and announce a “recalculated” result. On February 10, 2021, Georgia prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into Trump’s efforts to subvert the election in Georgia.
Trump did not attend Biden’s inauguration.
January 6 Capitol attack
In December 2020, Newsweek reported the Pentagon was on red alert, and ranking officers had discussed what to do if Trump declared martial law. The Pentagon responded with quotes from defense leaders that the military has no role in the outcome of elections.
When Trump moved supporters into positions of power at the Pentagon after the November 2020 election, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and CIA director Gina Haspel became concerned about a possible coup attempt or military action against China or Iran. Milley insisted that he should be consulted about any military orders from Trump, including the use of nuclear weapons.
On January 6, 2021, while congressional certification of the presidential election results was taking place in the U.S. Capitol, Trump held a noon rally at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., where he called for the election result to be overturned and urged his supporters to “fight like hell” and “take back our country” by marching to the Capitol. Many supporters did, joining a crowd already there. The mob broke into the building, disrupting certification and causing the evacuation of Congress.
During the violence, Trump posted messages on Twitter without asking the rioters to disperse. At 6 p.m., he tweeted that the rioters should “go home with love & in peace”, calling them “great patriots” and repeating that the election was stolen. After the mob was removed, Congress reconvened and confirmed Biden’s win in the early hours of the following morning. According to the Department of Justice, more than 140 police officers were injured, and five people died.
In March 2023, Trump collaborated with incarcerated rioters on a song to benefit the prisoners. In June, he said that, if reelected, he would pardon many of them.