Voting rights expert warns Democrats not to fall for Trump’s ‘trap’

In the aftermath of the presidential election, Donald Trump met with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office, and both called for a smooth transition to the next administration.

It was a far cry from four years earlier when Trump lobbed threats toward media and election officials before leading a violent insurrection in an unprecedented attack on the Capitol.

And while it may feel like 2024 was a normal election year, that is only because Trump won, according to attorney Marc Elias, who told readers Thursday on Democracy Docket that he feared “what Trump did to our elections he is now doing to the other institutions of our democracy.”

“Before the election, there was near universal agreement among election officials, democracy advocates and the media that Trump would repeat his attacks on the electoral system in 2024 if he lost,” Elias wrote Thursday. “Many predicted that it would be worse than it was in 2020. We will never know how bad it would have been, only because he won.”

ALSO READ: 'Retired' judges back in action: U.S. Senators share their theories on surprise comeback

Trump has made a sport of fiercely going after his political opponents until they give in, and they eventually heap praises over him. Then all is forgiven, Elias pointed out. This has been the case with journalists, media executives, and world leaders, he added.

“The trap for Democrats and pro-democracy advocates is to believe that he has changed, that his failure to attack our elections proves anything other than he is satisfied with the results,” Elias wrote. “When Trump stops calling the media the ‘enemy of the people,’ it will only signal that Trump feels the media is obedient. If he starts to praise opposition figures or politicians, it means they are no longer threats to him.”

He concluded his opinion piece by writing that Trump will soon begin to execute his agenda – which he noted will mirror Project 2025 policy goals – and will continue to lie about the 2020 election results. Trump will also no doubt vilify and threaten those who call him out, Elias added.

“That is how we know we are doing the right thing. That we are effective,” he wrote. “It is the day that Trump praises us that we should worry and ask what we have done to capitulate.”