But even if Trump is defeated next month, no one should expect that his “movement” will simply disappear. Trump has long laid the groundwork that his defeat will be due to widespread electoral fraud, a belief which over half of his supporters believe, according to polls cited by the Associated Press, despite a study showing that from over 1 bn votes cast from 2000 to 2014 in all American elections, only 31 cases of voter fraud were identified. The issue goes much deeper than unsubstantiated popular belief in widespread voter fraud, and extends to the base of support which Trump has managed to manipulate and galvanize from white working-class voters.

Two pieces worth considering about the lingering effects of Trump’s candidacy on the American electorate were published yesterday. Both are worth a read: “Why Donald Trump’s politics are likely to live on,” by MarketWatch’s Steve Goldstein and “Trump may be finished — but Trumpism is just getting started,” by The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein.