Donald Trump’s attempts to subvert American democracy are reprehensible. Fortunately for the world, it appears they will also be ineffective. The authors of a book called “The Dictator’s Handbook” have some astute observations about exactly what Trump and his team are doing. Here’s one relevant note:

Trump is trying to make the people who report the vote into the actual winning coalition. He’s going to fail. The courts are not going to allow him to get away with it. But it’s horribly clever.

“Horribly clever” is one way to describe attempting to alter the outcome of a national election in which over 150 million people voted by having a tiny number of election officials alter the results. “Treasonous” might be another.