With Kamala Harris surging in polls, what happens if Donald Trump refuses to concede defeat & chants ‘fight, fight’

SUDDENLY there is a rambling old bloke who wants to be leader of the free world – and he is not Joe Biden.

No, the elderly geezer shuffling hopefully towards the White House is Donald Trump, 78.

President Biden’s withdrawal from the race to be President changes everything.

Suddenly, Donald Trump does not look nailed-on to win.

Suddenly Trump looks like the senior citizen.

Suddenly, Trump is facing serious opposition from a Democratic candidate young enough to be his daughter — Kamala Harris, 59 (all the other possible Democratic candidates are even younger).

Suddenly getting shot in the ear looks like it might not be quite enough to propel Trump into the Oval Office.

The Tango-tanned titan does not look quite as cocky as he did a week ago.

The polls have Trump and Harris neck and neck.

Kamala Harris looks like she would make a credible American President.

And here is what should worry all of us.

What if Trump loses and he refuses to accept the verdict of the American people?

What will that mean for democracy in the United States — and the rest of world?

It is not as if Donald Trump does not have form for being the world’s worst loser.

On January 6, 2021, two months after Trump lost to Biden in the 2020 presidential election — and lost narrowly but fair and square, the evidence suggests — a baying mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol Building in Washington.

“We won this election, we won it by a landslide,” Trump told a “Save America” rally in a speech before the riot.

“We will stop the steal. We will never give up. We will never concede.

“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country any more.”

Trump always runs on a platform which insists that the system is corrupt, crooked and out to rob you.

Unless he wins, of course.

It is a profoundly anti- democratic rallying cry, designed to stir the blood of the poor, ­disenfranchised and bitter.

What happens if Trump refuses to concede defeat to Kamala Harris?

What if he loses and chants his new catchphrase — “Fight, fight, fight!”

It is not just Trump who has debased democracy in the US.

Vanity demands title

Joe Biden says he is withdrawing from the Presidential race “to save democracy”.

Yeah, right. By clinging to power long after he had lost the ability to tell Volodymyr Zelensky from Vladimir Putin, or indeed his ar*e from his elbow, Biden has been Trump’s great enabler.

If Trump wins in November, it will be largely because Biden’s narcissism let him stay long after he should have gone.

And if Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, then he is certainly not fit to remain as President — and have his trembling finger on the nuclear ­button for the next six months.

But Biden will remain as President because his vanity demands it.

The preening self-regard of two old geezers is destroying democracy in the USA.

How different it is in the UK.

How gloriously peaceful the transition between a Conservative and Labour government.

The sight of Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer chatting amiably before the King’s Speech could just not happen in the bitterly divided US.

And how civilized Keir Starmer’s first Prime Minister Questions seemed, as Rishi Sunak promised to do everything within HM Opposition’s power to help our Labour Government support Ukraine.

The Brits love to moan that nothing works in this country.

But our democracy does.

Votes don't work

Nigel Farage, MP for Clacton, writes that “it’s time we had a referendum on the ECHR (the European Convention on Human Rights).”

As Nigel points out, it was largely the ECHR that prevented the scheme for shipping illegal immigrants to Rwanda from ever getting the all-clear for take-off.

But I am not convinced that a referendum on the ECHR would help us control historically high levels of immigration.

Because referendums solve nothing.

The Scottish independence referendum of 2014 resulted in ten years of dominance by the Scottish National Party – after the Nats LOST!

The EU referendum of 2016 – and the 17.4million who voted to Leave – led eight years later to a landslide victory for a passionately Remainer PM determined to reset our relationship with the European Union.

A theme starts to emerge, does it not?

Referendums embolden the losing side, harden their resolve, and end up having exactly the opposite effect of the result.

Referendums never work.

We should pray we never see another one in our lifetime.

Little squirts

THE tourist is now a figure of hate all over continental Europe.

In Barcelona, tourists at restaurants on Las Ramblas were squirted with water pistols.

In Majorca, 10,000 locals marched in Palma, occupied beaches and blocked the airport.

A popular T-shirt sported by the locals with the acronym ATAB stands for “All Tourists Are Bastards”.

There is also hostility towards visitors in France, Greece, Italy and Croatia.

And I can’t help wondering – do these protesting Europeans ever go abroad?

Because London seems to be full of them.

Anya’s face wins science checkmate

ANYA Taylor-Joy is the most beautiful woman in the world, according to Harley Street cosmetic surgeons, who based their conclusion on an ancient mathematical formula.

Back in the olden days, the Greeks measured physical perfection by what they called “the golden ratio” – the relationship between the eyes, nose, eyebrows, mouth, chin and facial shape.

On this venerable formula, Anya scored an impressive 94.66 per cent.

But for all of us ugly ducklings, it is worth remembering that Taylor-Joy’s looks were considered quite quirky when she broke out with The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix in 2020.

In what is still her greatest, career-defining role, Anya was completely convincing as a nerdy chess prodigy.

But she was hardly your standard Hollywood sex goddess in The Queen’s Gambit.

There was just something unique about the way she looked.

You could not imagine, say, Margot Robbie in that role.

But Anya Taylor-Joy was perfect as the nerdy, chess-obsessed teen because she had an unconventional beauty – especially those huge, wide-set eyes that seemed to stare into your soul, as if she already knew where you were going to place your next pawn.

The rest of the cosmetic surgeons’ list doffs a cap to orthodox Hollywood beauty – Zendaya, Bella Hadid, Margot Robbie, Taylor Swift etc.

But it is Anya Taylor-Joy who comes closest to the ideal of physical perfection, only denied a perfect score by the smallness of her lips.

And possibly only a bunch of Harley Street cosmetic surgeons could ever find fault with Anya Taylor-Joy’s mouth.

Kemi's no Liz truss

Members of a political party should not choose their leader.

They invariably get it wrong.

Relying on the dubious wisdom of card-carrying party members is how Labour got Jeremy Corbyn – when Labour MPs wanted Andy Burnham, who would surely have been a better choice.

Mind you, Kim Jong Un would have been a better choice than Jezza.

And leaving it to the party members is how the Tories got economy-crashing Liz Truss – when Tory MPs wanted Rishi Sunak.

Now card-carrying Tories will have the ultimate say on their party’s new leader.

At their party conference, four candidates for the leadership will make their pitch.

Tory MPs will then choose two.

Then party members have the final say, with the new leader unveiled on November 2.

James Cleverly would be a brilliant leader for the Tories as they begin the long march back to power.

So would Kemi Badenoch.

But will the same Tory party members who preferred Liz Truss to Rishi Sunak have the wit to vote for either of them?

Off the rails

THE 2024 Paris Olympics have got off to an unhappy start.

Thirty-five thousand fans at the Argentina v Morocco match were ordered to leave the stadium after crowd violence.

The French high- speed rail network was vandalised on the day of the opening ceremony.

And 250,000 tickets are still available – some even for a prestige event like the men’s 100m final.

How different to London in 2012.

Tickets to our glorious games were like gold dust and we happily trudged to whatever event we could, just to feel like part of Olympic history.

But look on the bright side.

The Olympic Village has 200,000 condoms in stock.

Suggesting that excitement will rise over the next two weeks.

Let the Games begin!