On the legitimacy of the Trump administration

3 a :  accordant with law or with established legal forms and requirements
b :  ruling by or based on the strict principle of hereditary right
4 :  conforming to recognized principles or accepted rules and standards

Legitimate (Merriam-Webster)

I thought this argument was going to be longer than it actually needs to be.

It is actually pretty straightforward.

Donald Trump’s administration will be legitimate in sense three: the appropriate paperwork will be filed and signed and the appropriate ceremony will be held.

Donald Trump’s administration will be highly illegitimate in the sense of “conforming to recognized principles or accepted rules and standards.”

Because of respect for the Constitution and the rule of law we MUST accept the Trump administration’s legality UNTIL SUCH TIME as he is impeached by the House, convicted by the Senate, and removed from office. At that time, Vice-President Pence.

I expect this to happen within the first two years of his term and that it will be Republicans concerned with Trump’s foreign policy and decisions regarding the military who will spearhead the effort, using Trump’s enormous, conflicts of interest that will be unconstitutional as of noon on Inauguration Day - though they would never impeach him on that basis alone.

On the other hand, neither the citizenry nor the voters nor the Democrats nor SANE Republicans should EVER accept Donald Trump’s assault on good citizenship, norms of civil discourse, traces of which still exist even in politics, honest dealing, and respect for THE VERY CONCEPT of “fact” as normal.

Period.

Resources

What goes around, comes around: Donald Trump’s assault on President Obama’s legitimacy for political gain.

March 2011 – Donald Trump, the property tycoon and potential Republican presidential candidate, reignites the issue by saying he has “doubts” about Mr Obama’s account of his birth.

The Obama 'birther' conspiracy timeline (The Telegraph)


Donald Trump HIMSELF challenges the integrity of the election THAT HE WON.

"President-elect Donald Trump provoked a firestorm on social media with a series of tweets on Nov. 27 that questioned the integrity of the balloting that elected him president.
"In one tweet, Trump wrote, "In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."
*****FollowDonald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrumpIn addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally3:30 PM - 27 Nov 201653,957 53,957 Retweets   163,324 163,324 likes*****
"He later tweeted, "Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California - so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias - big problem!""

Donald Trump's Pants on Fire claim that millions of illegal votes cost him popular vote victory (Politifact)

Congressman Lewis has witnessed and suffered physical assault from an Alabama State Police force that was clearly illegitimate in the fourth sense of Merriam-Webster’s definition and ultimately found to be legally illegitimate in the third sense.

“Asked whether he would try to forge a relationship with the president-elect, Lewis said that he believes in forgiveness, but added, "it's going to be very difficult. I don't see this president-elect as a legitimate president."
*   *   *  “"I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton," Lewis said.”

John Lewis: ‘I Don’t See Trump as a Legitimate President’ (CNBC)

“Southern state legislatures had passed and maintained a series of discriminatory requirements and practices that had disenfranchised most of the millions of African Americans across the South throughout the 20th century. The African-American group known as the Dallas County Voters League (DCVL) launched a voters registration campaign in Selma in 1963. Joined by organizers from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), they began working that year in a renewed effort to register black voters.

 “Finding resistance by white officials to be intractable, even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended legal segregation, the DCVL invited Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the activists of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to join them. SCLC brought many prominent civil rights and civic leaders to Selma in January 1965. Local and regional protests began, with 3,000 people arrested by the end of February.”

Selma to Montgomery marches (Wikipedia)