Trump lashes out after Colorado ballot removal: ‘Banana Republic???’

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox

Get our free Inside Washington email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

A freaked-out Donald Trump reacted to the news that he has been removed from the Colorado ballot after a court found him ineligible for the presidency for having engaged in insurrection in connection to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Mr Trump shared several videos on Tuesday night of rightwing pundits slamming the court’s decision before moving on to all-caps posts on Wednesday morning, railing against the indictments against him and what he continues to refer to as “election interference”.

The former president continues to claim that his predecessor is behind the indictments against him despite there being no evidence that President Joe Biden has directed the Department of Justice to do anything along those lines. At the same time as the department is prosecuting Mr Trump, it’s also prosecuting Mr Biden’s son Hunter.

“WHAT A SHAME FOR OUR COUNTRY!!!” he posted just after 7.30am on Wednesday.

“BIDEN SHOULD DROP ALL OF THESE FAKE POLITICAL INDICTMENTS AGAINST ME, BOTH CRIMINAL & CIVIL. EVERY CASE I AM FIGHTING IS THE WORK OF THE DOJ & WHITE HOUSE. NO SUCH THING HAS EVER HAPPENED IN OUR COUNTRY BEFORE. BANANA REPUBLIC??? ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!” he added in a subsequent post.

“A SAD DAY IN AMERICA!!!” he wrote just before 8am.

The highest court in Colorado ruled that Mr Trump is disqualified from being president again and that he should be removed from 2024 ballots. The historic and unprecedented order from the Colorado Supreme Court issued on Tuesday was the first such ruling from any state supreme court.

The Colorado court was the first to consider the question of Mr Trump or any other candidate’s eligibility after a litany of lawsuits challenging the legal viability of Mr Trump as a candidate under the “insurrection” clause of the US Constitution.

“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” the four justices in the majority wrote in the ruling.

“We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us,” they added. “We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”

The panel includes seven justices, three of which dissented. The ruling has been paused until 4 January to allow time for an appeal. The deadline for the Colorado Secretary of State to certify the contents of 2024 ballots is 5 January. The Colorado Republican primary is set to be held on Super Tuesday – 5 March – alongside 14 other states.

In 2020, Mr Biden easily won Colorado, 55 to 42 per cent. The last Republican to win the state on the presidential level was President George W Bush in 2004.

The Trump campaign is set to appeal the ruling to the US Supreme Court, which has a conservative 6-3 majority where three of the justices were appointed by Mr Trump.

The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution was one of the changes put in place after the Civil War. Section three of the 14th Amendment states that anyone who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and subsequently “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” is banned from holding public office.

Mr Trump shared a range of conservative reactions to the ruling, such as Fox News legal pundit Jonathan Turley, who said, “This country is a powder keg and this court is just throwing matches at it … for people that say they are trying to protect democracy, this is hands down the most anti-democratic opinion I’ve seen in my lifetime”.

The opinion editor of The Washington Times, Charlie Hurt, appeared on Fox News saying, “Democrats in Colorado are so afraid of allowing American voters to vote and pick the next president they are willing to do extra-judicial things ... in order to thwart the people’s choice from being on the ballot. To them, preserving democracy requires destroying democracy.”