With Trump’s encouragement, America had turned into the land of hundreds of Brooks Brothers riots– only this time, some of the rioters were brandishing AR-15s. The local elections supervisors were paralyzed. The issue swiftly moved into state courts.
Since the state election law issues were relatively clear-cut, the state courts did their duty, and Trump lost these cases. He had always viewed “his” Supreme Court as his ace in the hole, however. He just needed to find a theory that would put all of the cases in federal court, and victory was his. After all, three of the Court’s members had been selected by him! In true Godfather style, it was time for them to perform a service to him. That’s the way the world works.
Trump’s attorneys dutifully managed to build a transparently bogus constitutional claim out of the bones of Bush v. Gore and filed actions in federal court. When he lost at the lower levels, he asked the Supreme Court to hear the case. Thomas and Alito had long since become angry GOP partisans, with no interest in upholding liberal democracy; they were willing to go along. But Chief Justice Roberts and the three Trump appointees had had enough. The vote was 7-2 against Trump, and the legal phase of the drama was over.
Trump seethed. How could his appointees be so disloyal to him? They owed him! They were rats! But even McConnell and Graham, who had stayed quiet while the storm was raging, were done with it at this point. They told him the game was up. And it was; Biden took the oath a few weeks afterwards. Trump retreated to Mar-a-Lago and began a series of furious tweetstorms that has continued to the present day.