Three weeks after the American presidential election, the outgoing incumbent has grudgingly agreed to let the transition to his successor commence. In doing so, Donald Trump described the election he lost as “the most corrupt in American history”. But it is clear that his efforts to overturn the election result in the courts, based on this alleged corruption, are going nowhere. He has yet to present any evidence in support of his claim. He is proving himself a poor loser, though “loser” is a term anathema to his self-image.

There are two dimensions to Mr Trump’s defiance of the facts: that he wants to give himself an alibi for leaving the White House by presenting himself as the “real winner”; and that he wants to invalidate and delegitimise Joe Biden’s presidency from day one, in revenge for the way he felt he was treated after he defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. That process of undermining the Trump presidency began soon after, with the Mueller inquiry into his alleged collusion with Russia, which failed to land a fatal blow, followed by the Ukraine investigation, which accused Mr Trump of using military aid to pressurise a foreign government into acting in his personal interests.