In the 2020 election, Donald Trump ran for a second term against former Vice President Joe Biden. After Biden had beaten Trump in the Electoral College vote, he refused to admit he had lost. Instead, the President challenged the results in many states. He went to court and claimed that there was fraud in the states that he had lost.

On December 14, 2020 the Electoral College confirmed that Joe Biden had won the election. He received 306 electoral votes, compared to 232 for Trump.

The former president continued to state that the election was rigged, and many of his supporters believed him. After Trump held a speech near the White House on January 6, 2021, hundreds of supporters stormed the Capitol, where Congress was counting electoral votes and confirming election results. Many Trump supporters were arrested, and one person was even killed.

In 2022 Trump announced that he wanted to run for President again. In the following year he was charged with a series of crimes, including plans to overturn the election and remain in power, as well as keeping secret documents in his private home. The charges were dropped when Donald Trump was elected the 47th President of the United States in November 2024.



Protesters attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021
Image: Tyler Merbler from USA, CC BY 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



Words

  • announce = to say officially
  • arrest = to take someone to a police station because they may have committed a crime
  • beat = win against someone
  • challenge = here: not accept something that is true
  • charge = an official statement made by the police that a person has committed a crime
  • confirm = to make something official
  • Congress = place where laws are made
  • drop = go away
  • Electoral College = group of people who are chosen to elect the president
  • former = some time ago
  • fraud = cheating
  • including = also
  • overturn = here: to get a different result
  • receive = get
  • refuse to admit = here: not say something is true
  • remain = stay
  • rig = to cheat in order to get the results that you want
  • run for = become
  • state = to say in public
  • storm = attack
  • supporters = followers
  • term = time in office
  • went to court = here: to try to get the result you want in front of a judge