Xi Jinping, Ali Khamenei, Nicol谩s Maduro and doubtless were gleefully munching their popcorn as the violent fringe of a large pro-Trump demonstration stormed the halls of Congress earlier this month. The rioting in Washington and the militarization of the capital for this week鈥檚 inauguration telegraph American instability and weakness鈥攕omething that cheered every U.S. adversary and alarmed every friend around the world.
That said, the national and global doom-mongering is overdone. President Trump鈥檚 false claims and incendiary rhetoric ignited an ugly incident, not a constitutional crisis. Mr. Trump is too weak and American democracy too strong for any other result. Fundamental U.S. constitutional structures were never in peril. Up and down the line, state election officials from both parties followed the appropriate procedures, at times in the face of bullying and threats.
Distinguished lawyers of impeccable Republican and conservative credentials declined to lend their reputations to the weak claims that the president鈥檚 campaign sought to litigate. And when those cases came up for judicial scrutiny, courts filled with Trump appointees decided them according to the law. Even those representatives and senators who failed in their duty by echoing the president鈥檚 unfounded, inflammatory claims did so secure in the knowledge that their cynical grandstanding wouldn鈥檛 overturn the legal process. The American military鈥檚 commitment to constitutional order never wavered.
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