Trump won’t stay. But he’ll never admit defeat.

Despite Bill Maher’s unwavering certainty that Trump will cling to office even after he’s legitimately outvoted, it’s not been my big concern.

As of this writing, Biden has the best path to electoral victory. Barring any upsets, like Nevada suddenly swinging to the right, and Biden losing all the other battleground states, Biden will win. The “red mirage” — that early appearance of the election going Trump’s way — has to do with early and in-person versus mail-in ballots, the latter of which are expected to be overwhelmingly democratic.

So as the election goes on, Biden accretes more votes. He’s probably going to win.

To prevent that, the Supreme Court would have to order the cessation of mail-in vote counting. As of right now, it looks like that’s not going to happen. Next, the electors, who are not bound to cast their votes based on the popular vote of the state, would have to subvert the will of the people and actually vote for Trump in December. But historically, the electors vote in line with the will of the electorate. Finally, Trump could gain some ground with the lawsuits. He could, at the very most, drag things out through long, twisty court battles about voting minutiae. But I really doubt that’s going to happen, either.