The Element of Surprise

IF there really was significant malfeasance in this election, why are they waiting to act? Why didn't they do recounts? Why didn't the Harris campaign sue for investigations? Why did they let the certification of the election proceed on January 6? Why did no Democrats raise concerns?

One possible explanation that we all hope isn't right, is that they're simply not going to stop it. Maybe its too difficult, or too risky. Maybe they're worried it would tear the country apart worse than just letting Trump take office. Hopefully the country somehow makes it through, and it'll maybe learn its lesson the second time around.

Or maybe there wasn't significant malfeasance. Maybe Trump won more or less legitimately, and there just is no legal avenue to stop him.

A third possibility, the last remaining hope we're holding out for, is that the inauguration is the final step in a sting operation. Its definitely a stretch hoping for this. We've gone years and years without anyone stopping Trump. No judge, legal official, FBI agent, governor, president, etc. has stopped him so far. The DOJ couldn't even convict him before he won the election. So why should we believe anything will happen now?

Things are Happening

There is no public information or evidence about direct action against Trump. But things are happening related to the election. (Some included events are noted just to give context).

(Thank you to u/Fairy_godmom44 for their timeline that helped fill in some gaps)

Possible Clues

Its very interesting that there were no objections to the election certification. To my knowledge, Harris didn't actually engage in any recount efforts.

This tells us that either they believed Trump's victory was so clearly legitimate and overwhelming that they didn't think there was even any point in pushing on the matter; OR, that they have had something else going to resolve things instead.

But here's the tell: How did they know that it was legitimate without recounts and more in-depth audits?

We know Trump tried to cheat last time. We know he had every reason and predisposition to cheat this time if given the opportunity. We know he said suspicious crap over and over again about people not needing to vote, or not needing people's votes, etc.

We know Russia was peddling and supporting disinformation and misinformation throughout much of the election. We're pretty confident Musk/X were pushing hard to get Trump elected through similar techniques.

On October 23, 2024 Harris even stated that she was prepared in case Trump tried to cheat this time around.

So how is it that the election runs, Trump sweeps the swing states, and somehow wins the popular vote for the first time--amid mountains of suspicious-looking results and data--and there's basically no effort to look more closely or check for cheating?

All the Democrats suddenly fall in line and seemingly agree everything is legitimate and fine. At the very least, a few more audits and recounts could be used to settle concerns over some of the weird looking data, right?

Why did the Harris campaign not seem to make any effort at all to look more closely?

How did this guy who shouldn't even be walking around free on the street not only win the election again, but win it by a significant margin? This man who is ostensibly one of the least popular politicians in the country. This election, more than any in recent memory, calls for a more careful review.

Why, on December 11, 2024, did Bill Clinton say "Donald Trump, won the race fair and square. I think" unless he had a reason to be skeptical?

Why have agencies, officials, and President Biden been seemingly so coy and generic when referring to the "next administration" and appear to be avoiding saying Trump specifically?

Why sign a bunch of executive orders at the eleventh hour which could easily be undone on Trump's first day as president without a second thought?

Why was Harris calling world leaders for the Administration's farewells, not Biden? Why was Harris reaffirming the US' support for NATO when she would have to have known that just a few days later one of Trump's top priorities coming into office would be to undermine NATO?

Why is Biden only now warning about the dangers of misinformation and the new oligarchy of tech billionaires--when he also apparently knows that in just a few days the country will be headed down a path from which there is no return if Trump is actually taking power?

And why are all of these eleventh hour actions being taken when the people taking them know that Trump is vindictive and likely to seek retribution against anyone and everyone, even Biden?

Why Wait?

IF they're going to take action on Inauguration day (or in the rapidly shrinking time until then), what are they waiting for?

I'm no expert on the geopolitics, procedures, or laws at play here. There could be a lot we're not seeing. But from what I do know and can see, there's a few considerations:

  1. This is Complicated. This isn't just Trump. This involves Trump, his campaign, his cabinet picks, his cronies, his voters, and honestly, much of the republican party at-large. And it also involves Russia, and possibly other countries that have gotten involved like Iran and China. It even involves propaganda like Fox, X, and so on. Getting everything set up and figuring out the right action(s) to take might take time and lots of coordination.
  2. Evidence & Narrative. If anything is done to stop Trump, they have to have a very compelling case and narrative. It needs to be something the common man can fairly easily understand. Gathering evidence takes a lot of time, and there are a lot of pieces at play. A lot of leads to evaluate.
  3. Trump "completes" his crime. Maybe this is a misunderstanding of election law. But they might be waiting for him to actually try to "consummate" his theft of the presidency. For example, the counting of votes and certification of the election didn't really involve Trump. It was States and Legislators.
  4. Who Blinks First? It could be a bit of a game of chicken now. Trump has been president before. He knows some of how the government works. He may have enough of an ego to think he outsmarted everyone, but based on what we the public are privy to, there's no way he thinks he's completely in the clear. The government knows what Trump did, and Trump at least suspects they've gotten some clues about it. Who makes the first move?
  5. Everyone in one room. Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Trump, SCOTUS, republican legislators will all be together in one room. And this room, this building will just so happen to be surrounded by cops and heavy security. Stopping Trump would necessarily involve more than just Trump himself--and look at that, most of the other people you would need to take down are also in the room too!
  6. Everyone is watching. The inauguration will be a big event, lots of live viewers. They're not just going to quietly arrest Trump overnight and hope no one notices. If they take action to stop him, its going to be a big deal and its going to spin out fast. So if they have a large audience to present a clear narrative to, this is the time to do it.

Walking into a Trap?

Russia, Trump and his cronies all have the same information we have, and then some. So how would it be possible for the US to surprise Trump now?

Imagine that you and a few of your friends rob a bank. You get disguises, make a whole plan, and then you pull off the heist. The police show up at the bank later, you see it on the news. The police catch one of your friends. You're terrified your friend is gonna squeal, or they're gonna search your group texts and emails and pin you down.

But nothing happens.

You're nervous you could still get caught so you sit on the money. Are the bills marked? Will they know if you spend them or deposit them anywhere?

But you've already done it. You have the money. Its in your house. You knew there were risks when you set out to do the robbery in the first place. There's no going back now. No matter what you do there's a chance of prison. Turning yourself in would suck. You have the money, and if there's a chance of prison either way you might as well spend it.

Things seem safe. There's been no cops knocking on your door. Your friend didn't squeal. And, besides, you've hidden the money so well and your disguise was so good that no one would be able to pin it on you.

So you take a bunch of it go buy a fancy boat. You're still nervous that somehow the money gets traced back to you, but you're so far into this now. You tell yourself you're safe and you've outsmarted everyone.

Unfortunately the boat salesman was actually an FBI operative who was trying to get you to show where the money was in the house--because your friend did actually squeal on you, but they just needed to connect the money to you to nail you with the case.

In other words, even if Trump suspects the government has his scent, (1) he's got too much of an ego to not think he can outmaneuver them and (2) he's too far in at this point to turn back.

Nothing is Guaranteed

We have good reason to suspect the election results are tainted. But we don't have hard evidence yet. If there was something amiss, hopefully the government has the evidence.

Its also still possible that the election results are more or less legitimate. Trump might've actually won. Again.

But, even if Trump didn't legitimately win, there's no guarantee that our leaders or justice department will do anything about it. Maybe they can't. Maybe its too dangerous or risky. Maybe they don't have enough evidence. Maybe they weighed the outcomes and figured that four years of Trump shooting himself in the foot is a safer bet than intervention that leads to civil unrest or war.

Somehow, despite the apparent reality we're facing of marching towards Trump taking office, there's still hope. We know Trump attempted to cheat in 2020, and we have good reason to believe the 2020 results may have been tampered with as well (just not enough for Trump to win).

Harris and Biden were aware of this. The FBI, CIA, DOJ, etc. are aware of this.

Hell, they could pick any one of Trump's numerous crimes or other disqualifying attributes and go after that, even if he didn't do anything major and specific with this election.

There's so many thing suggesting at least certain things in the election weren't right. That the government is aware of it. Things that don't seem quite right or quite what they seem leading up to all of this.

Doing something at the literal eleventh hour on inauguration day seems crazy and nearly impossible. But it also seems impossible that with all the information, power, tools, resources, etc at their disposal, that Biden, Harris and the rest of the government are just going to sit back and hand Trump the keys.

I guess we'll find out in about 48 hours.