... let’s go back to the beginning — to the wee hours of November 9th.Wow -- he's still president! Passing grade for the first hundred days! Break out the foam "We're #1" fingers!
When Trump and his family took a Manhattan hotel stage to claim victory, they looked as shell-shocked as the rest of the world. He was scoring a smashing upset....
... within hours, [Hillary Clinton's] supporters took their anger to the streets, denouncing Trump as “Not My President” in cities across America. They continued for days, and some were punctuated by violence.
Legal efforts to overturn the election also began. One, led by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, focused on demanding recounts in three states Trump narrowly won — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Stein looked to be a stalking horse, and Clinton’s team quickly joined the effort.
A separate challenge to the results focused on persuading electoral college delegates in red states to switch from Trump to Clinton or even to abstain, in hopes of denying him the necessary majority of 270....
Clearly, Clinton’s camp held out hope it could steal the election. Her big margin in the popular vote became a rationale....
Then the Russians came, or rather the Obama administration unleashed a flood of leaks suggesting Trump’s team had colluded with Russia to tip the election.
... January ... brought the sensational Russian dossier on Trump, which looked like a bombshell until it was exposed as a dud.
No matter, the hothouse talk of impeachment grew, and social media carried numerous posts about assassination. Madonna talked of blowing up the White House and others spoke ominously of “stopping” Trump.
... shadowy stories about Trump’s teams contact with Russia appear[ed] on the eve of his inauguration. With violence rising in Washington’s streets even as the historic ceremony began, it seemed possible the handover of power might not be peaceful. The next day, massive women’s marches took place in major cities to prote[s]t the new president.
Yet, here we are, and Donald J. Trump is still America’s 45th President. His survival is the biggest story of his first 100 days.
This is all premised on dubious assumptions -- that Hillary Clinton's "camp" seriously believed in the possibility of overturning the Electoral College result; that impeachment and Senate conviction can happen in a little more than three months, or can happen at all when the president's party controls both houses of Congress; that, in 2017, Madonna is influential enough to inspire a popular overthrow of the government with an offhand remark.
But beyond that, this is the ultimate gentleman's C. But I imagine Trump is accustomed to those.
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