What if Donald Trump loses?

2024 U.S. election fears of post-election violence and unrest if Trump loses, with concerns over his refusal to concede.

Much of the outside world’s focus during the 2024 U.S. election has been on what victory for Donald Trump might look like, but many Americans are fretting about the opposite outcome – including some of his most vocal opponents.

The Republican ex-president, who is in a dead heat with Democrat Kamala Harris in the race for the White House, has never acknowledged the legitimacy of his election defeats – from the 2016 Iowa primary to his presidential contest in 2020.

His denialism deeply polarised the country last time around, and his continued attempts to sow distrust in U.S. democracy have sparked fears of a repeat of the violence seen during the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

“Should he lose this year, I have no doubt that he will claim fraud, leave no stone unturned to reverse the results, and refuse to attend Ms. Harris’s inauguration,” said Donald Nieman, a political analyst at Binghamton University in New York state.

“He’s not only a sore loser, he’s someone who will never admit he lost.”

Former President Trump’s rap sheet demonstrates that it is not beyond him to try to cheat in elections.

He has 34 felony convictions for a scandal involving covered-up payments to silence a porn star he feared was about to wreck his 2016 campaign with a salacious story about a sexual encounter.