Trump’s Big Lie 2.0 and how he wants to use it to plunge America into chaos

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If all goes according to plan, the nominee for the White House next January will be announced on Wednesday. Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.

However, there are many signs that the US election is not going as planned. After an ugly campaign, the election will also turn into an ugly battle. Especially if Democratic Harris wins.

Back in 2020, Donald Trump was trying to swing the election in his favor. In addition, he committed election fraud by instructing Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger via phone call to “find” 11,780 votes for him.

Meanwhile, in Arizona, where hundreds of armed demonstrators gathered in front of a city hall, Trump's camp spread rumors that his votes were being systematically blocked due to the use of Sharpies, a special type of felt-tip pen. credited. In court, the accusations were proven to be fabricated and false. The case went down in history as “Sharpiegate.”

She was still smiling. If Kamala Harris wins the election, Donald Trump may never admit defeat. This is the basis of his Big Lie 2.0. Image: trapezoid

When Biden's victory in Arizona became a foregone conclusion, a group led by attorney Rudy Giuliani sought to use fake electors to seize the state for Trump. The plan failed. Conspirators, including Giuliani, must appear in court in January 2026. To avoid severe punishment, the two defendants have pleaded guilty.

Trump also tried legal tactics. His team has filed at least 63 lawsuits alleging election fraud. They were rejected without exception.

The cases described are just the tip of the iceberg. The Wikipedia entry “Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election” – “Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election” – contains (not including more than 650 source citations) 44 typed A4 pages. To say the Trump team spared no effort in 2020 would be an understatement.

Election week is certainly not going to be quiet for Brad Raffensperger.Image: trapezoid

The efforts at that time all had one thing in common. They arise out of necessity—out of necessity. But now there are signs that the Trump camp is carefully preparing to question the legitimacy of the 2024 election and disrupt the electoral process in any possible way.

Donald Trump himself laid the groundwork for this action: To this day, he continues to repeat the Big Lie, cast himself as the victim, and repeatedly claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Furthermore, he has repeatedly hinted that this could also happen in 2024: “If the elections weren't rigged, I would win. If they were rigged, it's a different story,” he said recently in an interview with Patrick Bate-David said in a podcast interview.

The message is clear: Trump will only accept a Trump victory. What if failure is imminent? Then lawsuits were filed, and the opposition was accused of fraud: “I could lose,” he said at a campaign stop in Michigan, “but only if they cheated.”

Trump’s man in charge: Roger Stone. Thanks to Trump's pardon, he stayed out of jail.Image: trapezoid

“We were unprepared last time,” said Roger Stone, Trump's criminal campaign adviser who was convicted in 2020 of making false statements, influencing witnesses and obstructing an investigation. “We're in a much better position this year.” “We have lawyers, judges and technology,” he explained in a secretly filmed conversation in June.

A lot has happened since then. As a precaution, the Trump campaign filed more than 100 lawsuits in swing states. Most of the complaints point in the same direction: non-U.S. citizens dropping illegal ballots into ballot boxes. On a grand scale. As NBC News recently dubbed it, this is Big Lie 2.0.

This was a coordinated attack. In addition to Trump's constant rhetoric, a group of fervent Trump supporters have created videos to back up the claim. One of the most successful is Anthony Rubin. The amateur boxer filmed himself searching for illegally registered voters in places like the swing state of Georgia. Elon Musk also commented on the heavily edited result, which has been viewed more than 56 million times. What Rubin found was not surprising: Georgia is flooded with illegal voters.

A few days later, Lead Stories reporters visited the housing development Rubin was “investigating.” They learned that many of the interviewees just wanted to get rid of the person. Some admit they don't even understand the issues.

In fact, the inconsistency discovered by the fact-checker remains a side note with a “like” on X. Research on “main stories” often focuses on right-wing propaganda. But despite having more than 20,000 subscribers, posts on X were barely viewed, let alone shared.

But thanks to millions of views, Anthony Rubin’s fallacy remains that 14% of Georgia voters cannot be U.S. citizens. He couldn't care less about the truth. He made a lot of money from this content: as the BBC reported, a veritable market for misinformation emerged during the campaign. Thousands of dollars can be made every month from fake news, AI images and memes. Not everything is fiction – but the lines between fiction and truth are deliberately blurred.

One of the world's biggest purveyors of fake news who loves to complain about traditional media but still insists on X: Elon Musk.Image: trapezoid

Another is still right: Georgia’s Secretary of State. This is still tough Republican Brad Raffensperger. He also conducted a survey to find out how many illegal voters there were in Georgia. He also found what he was looking for: the identification of 20 illegal voters. Ranked 20th among 8.2 million voters. Or expressed as a percentage: 0.00024.

But opponents of Big Lie 2.0, including those within their own ranks, have been overwhelmed by the media power of Elon Musk. There, the choir knows only one voice, and it's having an impact: 46% of Republicans said they didn't want to accept a Harris victory, according to a recent poll published by USA Today. The wounds that Donald Trump’s disinformation campaign has inflicted on American democracy will continue to bleed for a long time and will permanently weaken this country.

Big Lie 2.0 will also have a concrete impact on the electoral process. With the help of local election officials, state lawmakers and even judges, the Trump team will try to delay or even stop vote counting in battleground states, demand recounts or prevent the certification process of the results. All kinds of illegal voting are always used as an excuse. Remember the term “non-citizen vote/ballot” – “non-American vote.” You're going to hear a lot of this in the coming weeks. It could take a long time before the election results are finalized.

The fact that Donald Trump is no longer president of the United States has not simplified the Republican strategy — and additional guidance issued since 2020 has made it more difficult to protest against election fraud. But Trump can count on a fervent following — and the combined power of right-wing media. It is not yet possible to assess what will grow from using this fertilizer on seeds currently being sown. But something is happening. As has been observed for some time, the ground is shaking.

To add to the pressure, experts believe Donald Trump will declare himself the winner as votes are being counted on Wednesday night. “Time Magazine” speculates that the real heated stage of the US election will then begin. In the worst-case scenario, it could be delayed until January 6, when the final count of congressional electoral votes is scheduled. Until then, the Trump camp will be trusted to do any dirty tricks. And the armed population short-circuits almost every time.