The US Congress certified President-elect Joe Biden's victory on 7 December, albeit the typically formal procedure was overshadowed by violence as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building, where the joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives was convening.
After order was reinstated, lawmakers swept aside objections from over a dozen senators and 100 members of the House, formally acknowledging Joe Biden as the next, 46th, US President.
The former vice president won the 2020 presidential election by a 306-232 electoral vote margin, with the swearing-in ceremony set for 20 January.
After a protracted struggle to challenge the results of the election, Donald Trump appears to have finally conceded victory to his rival. Here is a timeline of how events had played out throughout the months following Election Day.
‘Stolen Election’
The final symbolic decision by Congress dealt a hammer blow to Donald Trump, who had been fighting to overturn the results of the November election ever since the former vice president was projected the winner by multiple mainstream media outlets in the wake of the ballot casting.
On 3 November, US voters headed to the polls to vote in the 2020 presidential and congressional elections that pitted Republican Donald Trump, seeking reelection, against his Democratic rival Joe Biden.
The election was distinctly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, with measures such as early voting and a record influx of mail-in ballots to curb the spread of the disease.
Universal mail voting was repeatedly criticised by President Trump ahead of Election Day, as he claimed it would make the US "a laughing stock", leading to voting fraud and giving a boost to his rival Joe Biden.
The Democrats, however, including ex-President Barack Obama, slammed Trump for attacking postal voting and alleged attempts to "undermine the election".
Hours after polling places closed on 3 November, both President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden claimed that they were on the path to winning, as they raced ‘neck and neck’ while the tussle for the White House came down to the wire.
Trump hit Twitter to claim he had ‘won’ the reelection, while pointing out that ballot counts in key Democrat-run states had “erased his lead” in the presidential election.
"Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat run & controlled… Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. VERY STRANGE,” wrote Trump, as Twitter flagged the tweet as "misleading."
The president claimed victory and threatened to go to the Supreme Court to prevent more ballots from being counted in some swing states such as Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
"We want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any" additional ballots, he said.
"This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election, frankly, we did win this election," Trump said in a speech from the ceremonial East Room of the White House on 4 November.
Voting Irregularity Claims
Donald Trump increasingly underscored the ‘fraudulent’ ballot-casting as counting and certification of the vote was subsequently delayed in some key battleground states across the country, including Georgia and Pennsylvania, due to mail-in voting rules.
Trump's campaign insisted that they hadn't been afforded access to counting locations to observe the counting process, with lawsuits filed by 5 November in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, and raising absentee ballot concerns.
During November and December, there emerged unsubstantiated claims of ballots discovered in drainage ditches in Pennsylvania, ballots in Phoenix marked with sharpies being disqualified, and thousands of voters in Michigan casting ballots under deceased people's names.
Fuel to the fire was added by the fact that Joe Biden had flipped the state of Arizona blue, becoming the first Democrat to carry it in 24 years, as well as winning in Georgia, a traditionally 'red' state.
Nevertheless, as the claims were called into question, election officials from both political parties as well as international observers confirmed there have been no serious irregularities in the 2020 US presidential election.
Electoral College Tally
On 14 November, Joe Biden was declared the winner in Georgia, based on a projection by Decision Desk HQ, as earlier the election was called in his favour by CNN, ABC and other networks.
The final Electoral College tally in the presidential election saw 306 electoral votes for Biden and 232 electoral votes for President Donald Trump.
This meant that Biden was well over the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to secure the presidency.
The Trump campaign responded by filing numerous lawsuits to protest the projected results of the election.
Legal Challenges
As projected President-elect Joe Biden began to move ahead with transition plans and announce members of his incoming staff, President Trump refused to publicly concede defeat, initiating at least 42 legal challenges since Election Day.
Besides ‘ballot-harvesting’, earlier slammed by Trump as rife with fraud, the Trump team pointed to the voting machines owned by Dominion Voting Systems as having changed thousands of votes for Trump into votes for US President-elect Joe Biden in several key swing states, including Georgia. However, the company which provided vote-counting equipment to several states, has denied all accusations.
At a press conference on 19 November, held by members of Trump’s legal team at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington DC and led by the President's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, campaign's legal team laid out its case for widespread voter fraud in the election. The former New York City mayor declared that votes cast in "Democrat-run" cities were suspect because the communities and their leaders were historically corrupt.
The Trump team contended there was no way the president could be ahead early on Election Night, but have Biden surpass him as the counting continued.
Giuliani also slammed the media for not treating the claims seriously or investigating allegations.
However, most of Trump's lawsuits alleging voter fraud were thrown out by the courts, and after lengthy ballot recounts and audits.
Transition Delay
Meanwhile, House Democrats continued to denounce Donald Trump for refusing to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory in the election and reiterated their demand that the Trump administration's General Services Administration respond to procrastination over an official transition process for Joe Biden.
They claimed this prevented the transition team of Biden and Kamala Harris from accessing federal funding and meeting with government officials in preparation for inauguration on 20 January.
The General Services Administration on 23 November finally cleared the way for the formal transition from Donald Trump’s administration to begin.
Donald Trump said on Twitter the following day he had directed his team to cooperate on the transition, while vowing to continue fighting the election results.
“Will never concede to fake ballots & ‘Dominion’,” he said.
Electoral College Votes
On 14 December the Electoral College voted to cement Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump in this year’s presidential election, with ballots cast by individual electors in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to mirror their state’s popular vote.
As California electors cast their 55 votes for Biden, this pushed the Democratic candidate over the crucial threshold of 270 electoral votes.
When Hawaii cast the final four electoral votes of the day for Biden, the latter had garnered 306 total electoral votes, leaving Trump with 232. No “faithless” votes were recorded during the procedure.
Biden addressed the nation to state that “the integrity of our elections remains intact”.
However, President Trump underscored that there had never been anything like the voter fraud he believes happened during the election. Twitter put a warning on his tweet saying the claim is disputed.
Congress Certifies Biden Win Amid Capitol Riots
Lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives convened for a joint session on 6 January to beat back last-ditch Republican efforts to object to the results of the Electoral College vote tally, officially certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 win over Trump, essentially wrapping up efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The largely symbolic procedure was marred by unprecedented chaos and violence, as Trump supporters breached the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon after attending a rally addressed by the sitting president. Trump had reiterated to his supporters that he refused to concede and called on them to keep fighting to prevent the election from being “stolen”.
The siege forced lawmakers to halt the meeting, as protesters engaged in a standoff with the police that led to the death of at least five people.
The riots were roundly condemned by both parties, with the Democrats quick to baselessly hold President Trump responsible for what has been described as an ‘insurrection', claiming he had 'incited' protesters to violence.
In effect, Trump had posted a video message on social media amid the mayhem, urging his supporters who stormed the Capitol to "go home", saying:
"I know your pain. I know your hurt. But you have to go home now."
Nevertheless, the events triggered efforts to oust Trump, including either by invoking the 25th Amendment, which would see removing Trump from power and installing Vice President Mike Pence instead, or by initiating an impeachment procedure against the US president.
On Thursday, in the aftermath of the Capitol events, a bipartisan chorus called for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump.
"In calling for this seditious act, the president has committed an unspeakable assault on our nation," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during a Thursday press conference.
However, sources have been cited in the US media as claiming Pence is opposed to the call.
"Not happening," a Republican close to Pence was suggested as having said by Business Insider. There has not yet been a comment from a spokesman for the vice president.
World leaders condemned the storming of the US Capitol building by supporters of Trump on Wednesday.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain went on Twitter to urge a “peaceful and orderly transfer of power.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “furious and saddened” by the events, adding:
“I deeply regret that President Trump has not conceded his defeat, since November and again yesterday.”
French President Emmanuel Macron posted a video on Twitter, denouncing the violence, and saying that "what happened today in Washington is not American."
Despite the fact that Trump’s statements at a rally on 6 January did not include explicit calls for a violent attack on America’s democratic institutions, the president was accused of egging on his supporters not just by his political opponents, but also from members of his own party and even former members of his administration.
Thus, Gen. James Mattis, Trump’s first secretary of defense, in a statement provided to ABC News said that the “effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule…was fomented by Mr. Trump”.
Gen. Joseph Dunford, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, similarly blamed the President, as did Republican Sen. Mitt Romney and Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.
In the wake of the events, many Trump staffers and deputies have already resigned.
‘Seamless Transition’
In the wake of the Capitol mayhem and soon after Congress confirmed President-elect Joe Biden's election win, Donald Trump on 7 January committed to "an orderly transition" of power, despite disagreeing with "the outcome of the election", according to a statement attributed to him and released via deputy chief of staff for communications Dan Scavino.
Trump had been temporarily locked out of his Twitter accounts for "repeated and severe violations" of the company's civic integrity policy.
Finally, in a video released on 8 January, Donald Trump admitted, for the first time in his own words, that “a new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th”.
Without mentioning Biden by name, Trump said in a video address to the nation that “tempers must be cooled, and calm restored”.
“We must get on with the business of America. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power,” Trump said.
The president earlier also fed into speculations he would remain in frontline politics and possibly run again in 2024.
"I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!"