Trump supporters struggle to accept president’s defeat

‘I don’t think any of us are going to acknowledge Biden’ as president, one says.

Dejected Trump supporters struggled to accept that their candidate had lost his bid for reelection.

Thomas Nguyen, 61, took his place in a line of Trump supporters at a rally Saturday on Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, sporting a “Vietnamese Americans for Trump” Tshirt and waving an American flag.

Nguyen, an accountant, was incensed by what he described as the Democrats’ attempts to “steal” the election with illegitimate votes. President Trump and his supporters have accused Democrats of election fraud, offering no evidence to back it up. So far, courts have rejected GOP efforts to stop the vote counting over fraud concerns.

Asked if he would recognize Joe Biden as president should Trump concede, Nguyen said, “He will never concede, because the righteous will always win.”

Nguyen approves of

Trump’s approach to economic regulation, his handling of the pandemic — “He’s done an excellent job” — and his elevating conservative justices to the Supreme Court.

Unlike most people at the rally, Nguyen was wearing a mask, but he explained that he only wore it because it was emblazoned with Trump’s face.

Nguyen criticized Biden supporters who streamed past, many with middle fingers extended and the song “F— Donald Trump” blasting from their speakers. “They say bad words: ‘F Trump.’ They even have a song,” he said. “We don’t say, F Biden.’”

Carrie Johnson, who drove to Beverly Hills in a caravan from Mission Viejo, said she doesn’t recognize the Associated Press and other media (including Fox News) calling the race in Biden’s favor.

“The media doesn’t decide the election — the people do,” she said.

Were Biden to take office, Johnson said, she wouldn’t recognize him as president.

“I don’t think any of us are going to acknowledge Biden as our president,” she said.

Johnson, who lives in Orange County, said she is particularly concerned about “national mask mandates” and “mass vaccines” she worries could be coming.