At noon on Friday, Donald Trump will legitimately become the president of the United States. Voters made a free choice, their votes were tabulated accurately, he won the contest under the rules that have always applied to presidential races, the electors registered as much, and Congress certified the results.
Trump will hold the office every bit as rightfully as his predecessors did — including Barack Obama, notwithstanding Trump’s noxious attempts to deny his legitimacy.
Not everyone agrees about Trump’s pending status. “Trump isn’t a legitimate president,” says Representative John Lewis. A Facebook group called “Donald Trump Is Not My President” has nearly 150,000 members, and Madonna just echoed the sentiment.
My purpose here is not to try to argue the legitimacy deniers out of their view. It’s to ask what they mean by it.
Are the liberals who deny Trump’s legitimacy saying that they will not treat laws signed by him or regulations promulgated by his appointees as valid? Will they stop paying taxes to the federal government that they believe he illegitimately heads? Will they ignore Supreme Court decisions whenever his appointees were decisive to the outcome? Will Representative Lewis be filing a motion to impeach Trump?
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