And now he wants to convince voters and the press that somehow that amounts to a victory. Some of Trump’s opponents have described his campaign, with its exaggerations and outright lies, as a giant con game. Now he’s trying to pull of the greatest con of all, arguing that even if he fails to win the requisite number of delegates, he should nonetheless be awarded the nomination. He’s basing this argument on a lead he got because of the large number of other candidates dividing the vote during the early primaries—and also because the opposition to him was so great that voters couldn’t decide who would be the best candidate to put an end to his megalomania-driven campaign.

There are many reasons to deny Trump the nomination. For one, making him the face of the Republican Party would destroy the party for years to come, if not end it altogether because having him at the top of the party’s national ticket would likely lead to the defeat of a significant number of House and Senate members and give Democrats a Senate majority. More important, however, than the effect on the Republican Party, a Trump nomination could result in putting the presidency of the United States in the hands of a dangerous and bigoted demagogue who would not only undermine any claim to American exceptionalism—our constitutional commitment to human values and the rule of law—but also possibly draw the country into a series of high-level confrontations with nations around the world.