The Trump administration threw the presidential transition into tumult on Monday, Attorney General William Barr authorizing the Justice Department to probe allegations of voter fraud and President Donald Trump firing the Pentagon chief and blocking government officials from cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden’s team.

Despite little evidence of fraud, Barr signed off on investigations into the unsubstantiated claims made repeatedly by Trump. Even as Biden began assembling experts to face the surging pandemic, the federal agency that needs to green light the beginnings of the transition of power held off on taking that step. And the White House moved to crack down on those not deemed sufficiently loyal as Trump continued to refuse to concede the race.

Top Republicans largely refused to put widespread pressure on Trump to accept his election loss. He remained out of sight at the White House, conversations ongoing about how the defeated president would spend the coming days and weeks as he challenged the people’s verdict.

The ouster of Defense Secretary Mark Esper was expected by some aides to be the first of several firings by Trump, now freed from having to face voters again and angry at those in his administration perceived to be insufficiently loyal. Others believed to be vulnerable: FBI Director Christopher Wray, CIA head Gina Haspel and infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Out of sight but not unheard, Trump took to Twitter to again dispute the result of the election, making baseless accusations of widespread “unthinkable and illegal” activity in the vote.

Trump is not expected to formally concede but is likely to grudgingly vacate the White House at the end of his term, according to several people around him. He was in discussion with top allies about the possibility of more campaign-style rallies as he tries to keep his supporters fired up despite his defeat. It was possible they would feature his family and top supporters but not the president himself.

The president was given cover to keep fighting by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, seen by many in the GOP as the one who may eventually need to nudge Trump to the exit.

“Our institutions are actually built for this,” McConnell said as he opened the Senate on Monday. “We have the system in place to consider concerns and President Trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer countered that the Republicans’ refusal to accept the election results was “extremely dangerous, extremely poisonous to our democracy.”

“Joe Biden won the election fair and square,” Schumer said.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said it was time for the transition to proceed unimpeded. “At this stage, I think the transition should be underway, even though it’s not finalized,” he said. “We want to make sure that the interests of national security and smooth transition” are carried out.

A few other GOP senators sent tepid nods toward a transition. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska offered congratulations to Biden, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine noted the Democrat’s “apparent victory.” But many Republican lawmakers were reluctant to speak up about the election, seeing little political incentive to take a firm stance on Trump’s transition from the White House.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have been hesitant to push Trump to concede to Biden, knowing it would anger their base of Trump’s most devoted supporters. Most were also not overtly encouraging the president’s unfounded claims of fraud, while allowing baseless questions about the election process to linger.

Adding to the sense of uncertainty, the General Services Administration held off on formally beginning the transition, preventing Biden’s teams from gaining access to federal agencies. An agency spokesperson said late Monday that an “ascertainment” on the winner of the election had not yet been made. Citing what the agency did during the extended 2000 electoral recount, it signaled that it may not do so until Trump concedes or the Electoral College meets next month.

Across government, there were signs of a slowdown.

In weekly Monday morning all-hands phone calls for Midwest-based employees of the Environmental Protection Agency, mid-level administrators responded to questions about the transition by telling staffers they had no information yet, said Nicole Cantello, an agency employee and president of the Chicago local of a union representing EPA workers.

Up to Friday, at least, EPA employees told agency retirees that the agency’s political appointees were refusing to discuss any transition, saying they were sure Trump would be reelected.

A senior administration official said presidential personnel director John McEntee, the president’s former personal aide, has sent word to departments that they should terminate any political appointees seeking new work for now. Another official said the warning was not seen as likely to result in any firings but rather meant to reinforce to staff that they should not act counter to Trump while he refuses to concede. Those officials and others who were not authorized to discuss internal policies or describe private discussions requested anonymity.

At the U.S. Agency for International Development, which already underwent an abrupt post-election change in leadership, staffers were instructed not to begin acting on transition planning until the GSA approved it, according to officials familiar with the matter.

But some elements of the federal government already were mobilizing to prepare for Biden to assume power. The U.S. Secret Service and Federal Aviation Administration extended a flight restriction over Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home through Inauguration Day. Biden’s security detail has been bolstered with agents from the Presidential Protective Division.

And despite Trump’s public stance, there was a growing realization in his inner circle that the election result would be impossible to overturn.

Legal challenges already have been dismissed in battleground states like Georgia and Wisconsin. And Trump’s legal challenge was dealt another blow Monday when campaign adviser David Bossie, tasked with leading the effort, tested positive for the coronavirus.

Bossie had been at the indoor White House election night party now being perceived as a possible superspreader event after other attendees — including chief of staff Mark Meadows, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and other aides — contracted the virus.

Some senior officials have tried to make the case that Trump should turn his efforts to cementing his legacy, but they are wary of being labeled disloyal for even thinking it.

At the White House, attendance among aides had dropped off since election night — partly because of the result and partly because a number are in quarantine after contracting or being exposed to people who came down with COVID-19. And Vice President Mike Pence was slated to depart Tuesday for a vacation in Florida.

In the closing days of the election, Trump repeatedly described campaigning as “my job,” and it steadily crowded out his official duties.

Trump’s public schedule hasn’t included an intelligence briefing since Oct. 1. The White House hasn’t provided a “readout” of any call between the president and a foreign leader in weeks. He hasn’t met with members of the White House coronavirus task force in months. He also offered no public comment on Tropical Storm Eta lashing the Florida Keys.

The drawn-out resolution to the election has only added to the culture of suspicion that has permeated the hollowed-out West Wing.

Aides said there were two camps at the White House: those who have already accepted the outcome and those who are still working through it and pushing Trump to keep fighting. Staffers don’t know in which camp their officemates reside and those who are looking ahead to new work are fearful of being branded as disloyal.

The Trump campaign has claimed there has been a widespread, multi-state conspiracy by Democrats to skew the vote tally in Biden’s favor, without hard evidence to back it up. There would need to be proof of illegally cast votes or improperly counted ballots on a massive, organized scale in order to throw out enough ballots to overcome Biden’s sizable lead across multiple states. And that just hasn’t emerged. In fact, election officials from both political parties have publicly stated the election went well.

But in every election, there are problems: voting machines break, long lines force some people away, ballots are miscast and lost. And 2020 has been no exception.

Source: AP

US President Donald Trump called in his lawyers to shore up his dimming re-election prospects, but legal experts said the flurry of lawsuits had little chance of changing the outcome but might cast doubt on the process.

As Trump’s paths to victory narrowed, his campaign on Thursday was ramping up legal challenges and said it was planning to file its latest case in Nevada.

On Wednesday, the campaign sued in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia and asked to join a pending case at the US Supreme Court.

Experts said the litigation serves to drag out the vote count and postpone major media from declaring Biden the victor, which would have dire political implications for Trump.

“The current legal maneuvering is mainly a way for the Trump campaign to try to extend the ball game in the long-shot hope that some serious anomaly will emerge,” said Robert Yablon, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. “As of now, we haven’t seen any indication of systematic irregularities in the vote count.”

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement Wednesday the lawsuits were aimed at ensuring legal votes were counted.

“The lawsuits are meritless,” said Bob Bauer, who is part of Biden’s legal team. “They’re intended to give the Trump campaign the opportunity to argue the vote count should stop. It is not going to stop.”

Ultimately, for the lawsuits to have an impact, the race would have to hang on the outcome of one or two states separated by a few thousand votes, according to experts.

In Michigan and Pennsylvania, Trump asked courts to temporarily halt the vote counts because the campaign’s observers were allegedly denied access to the counting process.

The Michigan case was dismissed on Thursday but a Pennsylvania court ordered that Trump campaign observers be granted better access to counting process in Philadelphia.

At the Supreme Court, the campaign is seeking to invalidate mail-in votes in Pennsylvania that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive by the end of Friday.

In Georgia, the Trump campaign asked a judge to require Chatham County to separate late-arriving ballots to ensure they were not counted, but the case was dismissed on Thursday.

“There is no consistent strategy there,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. She said the campaign was “throwing theories at a wall to see if anything sticks for long enough to muck up the waters.”

Edward Foley, who specializes in election law at the Moritz College of Law, said the cases might have merit but only affected a small number of ballots and procedural issues.

“But merit in that sense is very different from having the kind of consequence that Bush v. Gore did in 2000,” said Foley.

In that case, the Supreme Court reversed a ruling by Florida’s top court that had ordered a manual recount and prompted Democrat Al Gore to concede the election to Republican George W. Bush.

The 2000 election improbably close, with a margin of 537 votes in Florida deciding the outcome.

The campaign is still challenging late arriving mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, which according to media reports numbered in the hundreds so far, likely too few to have a meaningful impact.

In addition, it appears increasingly likely Biden can win the race even if he loses the state.

Danielle Lang, who advocates for voting rights at Campaign Legal Center, said Trump has a long history of attempting to whip up mistrust in our electoral system.

“Allegations of ‘irregularities’ — backed up by lawsuits, even frivolous ones — could potentially serve that narrative,” she said.

Experts said the lawsuits and claims of fraud might be aimed at softening the sting of being bounced from office by calling the process into question.

“The litigation looks more like an effort to allow Trump to continue rhetorically attempting to delegitimize an electoral loss,” said Joshua Geltzer, a professor at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy & Protection.

(Source: Reuters)

Democratic US presidential candidate Joe Biden is nearing 270 electoral votes after key victories in Michigan and Wisconsin, while President Donald Trump demanded a recount and threatened legal action.

Victories in those Midwestern states gave Biden a critical boost in the race to obtain the magic number of 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

Trump had won both Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016. With the count still underway, he has falsely declared victory, accusing the Democrats of trying to steal the election and vowed to fight the states in court.

“It’s clear that we’re winning enough states to reach (the) 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency,” Biden said in his home state of Delaware.

“I’m not here to declare that we’ve won. But I am here to report that when the count is finished we believe we will be the winners.”

There are five states still left uncalled, including Pennsylvania, and key small state of Nevada – meaning both Trump and Biden still have a path to victory.

Biden has so far secured 264 electoral votes while Trump stands at 214.

If Biden were to win in Nevada, which has 6 electoral votes, he would in theory have the necessary 270.

Other closely contested states including Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina were still counting votes, leaving the national election outcome uncertain.

Trump’s campaign launched lawsuits in Michigan and Pennsylvania to stop vote counting and demanded a recount in Wisconsin.

Trump provided no evidence to back up his claim of voting fraud and did not explain how he would fight the results at the Supreme Court. US election experts say fraud is very rare.

Source: Presstv

Tension spiralled in the still undecided US election Wednesday after President Donald Trump made unprecedented claims of fraud and demanded a recount in Wisconsin, where Democrat Joe Biden notched up another win to inch closer to overall victory.

While there was no official winner more than 12 hours after the last polls closed on Tuesday, the fate of the most divisive contest in decades was coming down to just a handful of states where the Republican incumbent and his challenger fought over razor-thin margins.

In the latest blow to Trump, Biden, 77, was declared the winner of Wisconsin, with an unsurmountable lead of 20,000 after 98 percent of ballots had been counted.

This mirrored Biden’s slow but steady march across the remaining toss-up states in the vast country, where counting was complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic and record numbers of early and mailed-in votes.

Biden led in Michigan by nearly 45,000 votes with 94 percent counted and has already been declared winner of another tight race in Arizona. Results were still being tabulated in Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — all of them close contests.

The apparent shift in fortunes toward the Democrat prompted Trump, 74, to launch a tirade claiming mass fraud that he claimed on Twitter had made his victories “magically disappear.”

Trump’s campaign announced a lawsuit to try and suspend the vote count in Michigan, where it said its team was denied proper access to observe vote counting.

The campaign said it was also suing to halt the counting of votes in Pennsylvania — after the president called overnight for Supreme Court intervention to exclude the processing of mail-in ballots after the close of polls.

And it demanded a recount in Wisconsin, citing “irregularities.”

– Biden’s confidence –

The Biden camp expressed confidence, with campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon calling victory by the former vice president a “foregone conclusion.”

Biden himself was expected shortly to make a statement on the knife-edge race.

But Trump has made clear he will not accept defeat before he has exhausted every possible challenge.

During the night after polls closed Tuesday, he went on live television from the White House to claim “we did win this election” and to allege there had been “fraud on the American public.”

He later repeated his vague accusations of vote rigging on Twitter, despite a lack of any substantiated reports of meaningful irregularities during voting or counting.

“Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat run & controlled,” Trump tweeted. “Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted.”

– ‘We have to be patient’ –

The tightest and messiest count could potentially unfold in Pennsylvania — the biggest prize still outstanding.

Here, Trump had a roughly 500,000 vote lead with an estimated 78 percent of the vote counted but votes were awaited from heavily Democratic parts of the state, promising to level things up.

“We have to be patient,” Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said. “We may not know the results today.

“There are millions of mail-in ballots,” he said. “They’re going to be counted accurately and they will be counted fully.”

The Democratic governor shrugged off criticism from the White House over the slow vote count and said “our democracy is being tested in this election.”

“Pennsylvania will have a fair election,” he said. “And that election will be free of outside influences.”

The tight White House race and recriminations evoked memories of the 2000 election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore.

That race, which hinged on a handful of votes in Florida, eventually ended up in the Supreme Court, which halted a recount while Bush was ahead.

The US Elections Project estimated total turnout at a record 160 million voters including more than 101.1 million early voters, 65.2 million of whom voted by mail.

Source: AFP

Joe Biden leads US President Donald Trump in electoral votes yet both still have a chance to reach the magic number of 270 – and with it the keys to the White House. Several states are still to play for, with votes still being counted.

Seven states still undecided: Biden leads in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, Trump in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.

The election is likely to hinge on postal votes, which are still being counted.

Trump has predicted a “big win”, claiming – without evidence – that Democrats are trying to “steal” the election.

Biden has called for patience, saying he is “on track” to win the White House race.

America set for its highest voter turnout in over a century, with more than 100 million votes cast before Election Day.

US President Donald Trump leads Democratic rival Joe Biden in the vital battleground of Florida and other US swing states, but Biden has pinned his hopes on Arizona and a trio of Rust Belt states that could take days to count their votes.

Trump is projected to win the key battleground state of Florida after significantly outperforming pollsters’ predictions

Biden leads in Arizona and is locked in a close race in other key states

The election is likely to hinge on results in Pennsylvania and other “Rust Belt” states, where vote counting is expected to stretch for hours or days

Trump has predicted a “big win”, claiming – without evidence – that Democrats are trying to “steal” the election

Biden has called for patience, saying he is “on track” to win the White House race

America looked set for its highest voter turnout in over a century, with more than 100 million votes cast before Election Day

Reported By France 24

Supporters of White House hopeful Joe Biden began gathering nervously late Tuesday for an election night event like no other.

Shortly after 10:00 PM (0200 GMT Wednesday), a trickle of cars started to arrive for a socially distanced drive-in in the parking lot of the Chase Center in the Democrat’s hometown.

Some 200 to 300 cars are expected for the event, where Biden and running mate Kamala Harris — joined by their spouses Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff — will address supporters from an outdoor stage.

With early projected results inconclusive, arrivals in the parking lot were slow. When people did arrive, they stood around anxiously watching results come in on giant screens.

Among the first to get there was 37-year-old Rossana Arteaga-Lorenza, who came with her young son. She had Biden-Harris stickers on her car and US flags hanging out of the window.

“I’m excited to be here,” she told AFP, through the window of the driver’s seat.

“If Joe Biden becomes president, I will be extremely happy. We are hopeful for a better future for our country.”

Drive-in rallies were a feature of the 77-year-old Biden’s campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic. Red, white and blue traffic cones with “Biden-Harris” emblazoned on them kept the vehicles six feet apart.

Biden supporter Thomas Hansen, 32, said he was cautiously optimistic about the night ahead.

“I’m hesitant to get excited about it, but I think it’s going well, especially by the number of people who voted early,” he told AFP.

Hansen said he was tired of the drama surrounding Trump’s presidency and wanted some “normalcy.”

“I think it should be boring most of the time in the White House,” he added. “If it isn’t, then you’re kind of doing something wrong.”

– Childhood home –

With early results suggesting a close race, it promised to be a long night. Hansen’s sister, Virginia Hansen, said she feared it could be days before a winner is confirmed.

“I’m withholding any hope for now,” said the 30-year-old.

Biden had started the day by visiting St. Joseph on the Brandywine, a Catholic church in his affluent Wilmington neighborhood.

He stopped at the cemetery where his first wife and daughter — and his son Beau — are buried.

Biden then visited his childhood home in the industrial town of Scranton in Pennsylvania, signing his name on the living room wall for good luck.

“From this House to the White House with the Grace of God,” Biden wrote, adding his name and the date: “11-3-2020.”

He stopped in Philadelphia before heading home to Wilmington, where he will watch the results before his event.

Source:  AFP

A temporary wall has been erected around the White House perimeter as law enforcement agencies prepare in advance for potential unrest and violence on Election Day.

Media reported a non-scalable “anti-climb” fence, made from a welded wire mesh that is  impossible to climb and very difficult to cut, installed around the White House on Monday.

Additional fencing already had been erected around Lafayette Square, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, the location of protests over racial equality in June following the police-killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died on May 25 when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on the neck of the handcuffed former bouncer for nearly nine minutes during an arrest.

The new fencing was among other measures being taken in Washington, DC, and other cities ahead of expected protests.

Meanwhile, fears of possible unrest on Election Night and beyond prompted many businesses and shops to board up doors and windows.

In anticipation of violence, in New York City, the Empire State Building, the Macy’s department store, and the skyscraper that houses the Trump-favored Fox News channel were all boarded up.

On Rodeo Drive, one of the most expensive shopping streets in California’s Beverley Hills, staff stripped the display windows at Tiffany & Co. and Van Cleef & Arpels of their jewels.

“Hopefully this is all for nothing,” Kathy Gohari, vice president of the Rodeo Drive Committee, the merchants association, said on Monday as she watched workers nail plywood over luxury storefronts.

However, in New York City’s Times Square in recent days ardent Republican Trump supporters and Democrats, as well as adherents of the anti-fascism movement known as ANTIFA, have been clashing with one another.

US President Donald Trump has warned that he expected an unprecedented level of cheating and violence in the course of the 2020 presidential election. 

“[C]heating can happen like you have never seen,” Trump told a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania on Monday. US Supreme Court ruling will ‘induce violence,’ Trump warns ahead of Election Day

In a Monday night tweet, Trump criticized the US Supreme Court’s decision to allow officials in Pennsylvania and North Carolina to continue accepting and counting mail-in ballots for a few days after Election Day, saying the court ruling will “induce violence in the streets.”

Trump’s prediction or threat of violence has increased anxieties about the potential for violence in a polarized nation engaged in a bitter and divisive race to send their favored presidential candidate to the White House.

Trump reportedly plans to declare a premature victory if he is “ahead” on Tuesday night, despite uncounted ballots.

The incumbent has highlighted massive voter fraud in this year’s election, downplaying the chances of a peaceful transition to his probable successor.

Thousands of US troops have been put on stand-by for rapid deployment in case of violence.

Source: Presstv

American voters in Dixville Notch, a village of 12 residents in the US state of New Hampshire, kicked off Election Day at midnight on Tuesday by voting unanimously for Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

The tiny northeastern town in the middle of the forest, near the Canadian border, has traditionally voted “first in the nation” since 1960.

Neighboring village Millsfield also begins voting at midnight but a third village in the area, which typically follows the same tradition, canceled overnight voting due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Most polling stations on the East Coast will open at 6:00 or 7:00 am (1100 or 1200 GMT) on Tuesday.

While many early votes are believed to have been cast by Democrats — encouraged by Biden to take advantage of the opportunity — Trump’s campaign is hoping for a massive wave of Republican supporters voting in person on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday predicted a “beautiful victory” hours before polls open in Nov. 3 presidential race.

“We’re going to have another beautiful victory tomorrow,” he said at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan late Monday.

“We’re going to make history once again,” he said.

Trump earlier rallied in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which was at the center of anti-racism protests this summer after African-American Jacob Blake was shot in the back by the police.

The US president was in a final hour bid to prove the polls wrong, while his Democratic challenger Joe Biden predicted victory and told America to “take back” democracy.

“We brought law and order to Kenosha,” Trump said to cheers, as soon as he took the stage. “They’re waging war on our police.”

The US president is trailing Biden in almost every poll amid his poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that has taken some 231,000 American lives and badly damaged the economy that had been his biggest selling point.

‘We’re done with chaos’

Biden, 77, made his own closing argument on Monday with events in Cleveland, Ohio, and then Pittsburgh in the ultimate swing state of Pennsylvania.

“I have a feeling we’re coming together for a big win tomorrow,” he said. “It’s time to stand up and take back our democracy.”

“It’s time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home,” Biden told supporters in Cleveland.

“We’re done with the chaos! We’re done with the tweets, the anger, the hate, the failure, the irresponsibility.”

“I’m hoping for a straightforward, peaceful election, a lot of people showing up,” Biden told reporters in Pittsburgh.

Nearly 100 million Americans have already cast ballots in early voting, highlighting the tensest race in recent memory.

Trump warns of ‘cheating’

For weeks, Trump has made unprecedented claims that his Democratic opponent will bring anarchy and that attempts are being made to rig the result against him.

He focused especially on battleground Pennsylvania’s rule allowing absentee ballots received within three days after Tuesday to be counted.

In a tweet flagged with a warning label by Twitter on Monday, he said this would “allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws.”

“It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!” Trump tweeted.

“It’s going to be cheating,” he said during the Wisconsin rally.

Source: Presstv

The USA presidential elections are less than 24 hours away. Unfortunately, I don’t have a vote. Otherwise, Trump could count on my vote 100%.

As an African, you might be wondering why I am pro-Trump. That is exactly the stereotype that drives me towards Trump. Yes, I am Black, but I would rather be voting for Trump.

I strongly believe that Africa would be a much better place today, if it had such leaders as Trump. Why is that?

1. Trump is not a career politician. I am more interested in results than political correctness. In any case, political ideologies and practices in Africa today are still essentially “copy and paste” from the colonial masters; and that is one of the major problems facing Africa today.

2. Trump is already a successful businessman. He does not need the presidency for daily subsistence. Most African leaders get into politics, not to serve, but primarily as a means to make a living. Consequently, they easily succumb to financial improprieties.

3. Trump puts America first. I really wished that the African leaders put Africa first. They appear to put their pockets and the interest of their colonial masters and mentors first.

4. Trump stands for small government. I am sick and tired of Africans looking up to the government for everything, and the leaders continuing to give the impression that citizens livelihoods are at their mercy. Most of the developed world was built by the private sector, with the governments only providing the enabling environment. For example, most of the UK’s vital public services (water, electricity, telecoms, railways) only became state corporations through a process of nationalization from private ownership after the 2nd world war. These companies have since been privatized, a sign that the government is not such a good manager.

5. Trump has strong self-belief and stays the course. The leaders closest to Trump that Africa has had, irrespective of ideology include Kwame Krumah of Ghana, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, Patrice Lumumba of Congo DRC, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, and now Paul Kagame of Rwanda. Most of today’s leaders have no ideology, and are only interested in gaining and keeping power, at all cost.

6. Trump has a great family. Success is contagious. No unsuccessful leader can raise such very successful children. This competency inevitably translates into success for business, careers and country.

7. Trump embodies the “Power of One”, a phrase I borrowed from Cameroonian writer Patrice Nganang. History, innovation, and significant milestones are often initiated and led by ONE person, be it sports, entertainment, innovation etc. Trump is a true leader and we need such leaders in Africa.

8. Trump brings contradiction and innovation. Some may call it division, but I am tired of the African talk of unity as a pre-requisite for all human progress. No, No. Unity in Africa means that people should FOLLOW whoever is in a position of leadership without question. The physically strong quickly fight themselves into positions of power and preach unity as a tool to keep power. If anything, Africa needs more division (diversity) than unity (conformity) within a level playing field.

Win or lose on November 3rd, 2020, Trump is my hero. I wished we had a few TRUMPs in Africa today. But I have no doubt that the African Trumps will emerge.

I would appreciate your constructive comments. And if you think this article makes interesting reading, please share.

Gene Worifah

Nov 2, 2020