The riot in January 2021, as the formal result of the 2020 election was about to be declared, was a protest against this action. Yet no evidence was ever produced to show that corruption, fraud or incompetence had been perpetuated in the election. Donald Trump[aut]Trump, Donald never withdrew his claim that he had been its winner. In many respects this was similar to how electoral politics was practised in some parts of the United States during the mid-late nineteenth century. The principal significance of Trump[aut]Trump, Donald’s behaviour for American democracyDemocracy now lay in the continuing erosion of conventions, widely accepted by professional politicians earlier, that had reduced defeated candidates’ ambitions and abilities to challenge election results—absent evidence. Alongside this, there has also been a great change in the willingness of Americans to believe communicationsCommunications emphasized in the mass media. Nevertheless, it must be stressed that threats and terrorism, driven by overtly social and political objectives, were present in America at least since its assertion of Independence.