No, Donald Trump is unlikely to pull off what the Spanish call an autogolpe — a government self-coup. But that will not be for lack of trying. The US has never experienced a losing incumbent who insists the election was stolen. It is hard to think of a genuine democracy where that has happened.

That is why people should still take the spectre of an attempted reality-TV coup seriously. Mr Trump has been saying for months that he would treat his defeat to Joe Biden as fraudulent. The real question is how much damage he can do to a system whose legitimacy is already wobbling.

The answer is a great deal. The limits to what Mr Trump can do lie not within himself but in the reactions of other people. So far, too many elected Republicans have acquiesced with the fraudulent postal ballot line, which makes no logical sense. The Republican party gained or held seats in many of the swing states that are in question. Many Republicans celebrating their wins are thus simultaneously questioning the ballots that pushed them over the finishing line. They cannot have it both ways.