But let’s be real. Even if Shirkey and Chatfield were somehow able to ram through 16 pro-Trump electors without any defections from their own party in the legislature here, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would just respond by putting 16 pro-Biden names in the ascertainment certificate. Then the whole thing would go to court, where it would almost certainly be dismissed because even a seemingly impossible victory for the president here would not be considered “determinative” of the actual outcome of the national election. It’s even possible that under such circumstances Michigan’s electoral votes would end up being forfeited.

Unlike two decades ago when Florida controlled our electoral destiny, 2020 did not come down to a single state. Georgia just finished its recount, which only brought Joe Biden 3,000 or so votes further away from the presidency. Most of the states Trump is hoping to flip — Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada — will be certifying their election results next week. Between now and then, he would somehow have to move the needle in at least two of them even after “winning” Michigan.

This would almost certainly be the single most brilliant display of legal gamesmanship in modern American history. Does anybody really think Rudy Giuliani or Jenna Ellis, the presidential adviser who tweets indignantly at well-known parody accounts, are going to be the ones to pull it off?