To say that the scenes witnessed on US TV stations on Wednesday were disturbing is a huge understatement. Footage of heavily armed Donald Trump supporters storming the Capitol – the home of the US government – in a bid to stop a democratic process was nothing short of disgusting. It was an attempt at sedition, perhaps a coup d’état, where armed force was used in an attempt to stop a democratic election from evolving.

What was even more disgusting was the fact that the disgraced outgoing president encouraged the violence, despite his feeble attempts to show otherwise.

Congress was set to carry out the formality of tallying the electoral college votes. Trump, who has been fuelling the fire since before the election results were announced in November, has continued to insist that the election was rigged and that he was the real winner. He has tried to challenge the election result but failed miserably, with several courts ruling that there was no evidence of electoral fraud. With no other options at hand, the beleaguered President set his sights on Wednesday’s event as a last-ditch effort to disrupt the election process.

Announcing that he would be speaking at the ‘Save America’ gathering, Trump encouraged big crowds to gather in support. He upped the rhetoric, saying that the thousands gathered in Washington would not stand for a stolen election. His twitter feed is ample proof that this man is not fit to be the mayor of a mid-Western ghost town, let alone President of the United States of America.

Trump then placed the onus on his deputy, Mike Pence, expecting his number two to challenge the vote in a number of battleground state. But his sidekick defied him, choosing instead to respect the democratic credentials the USA so proudly boasts of.

When things turned violent and an angry mob stormed the Capitol early in the afternoon, it took Trump hours to appeal for calm. Even when he did, his attempts to quiet down his people were feeble at best and, even then he continued tweeting about electoral fraud and how he was ‘cheated’ out of the White House.

The scenes witnessed in the US capital on Wednesday reminded many of Malta’s troubled 80s, when democracy was not respected, and violence took its place.

Over the past four years, Trump has managed to bring to the US the extreme political polarisation that many of us here in Malta so desperately want to get rid of.

The outgoing President is fully aware of the influence he holds over his extreme followers and uses it to his advantage. Even in defeat, he knows no dignity. His refusal to accept a democratic result, coupled with his arrogant attitude and his peddling of fake news on his social media accounts, has created a toxic situation that exploded on Wednesday, with fatal consequences.

The sitting eventually continued after the building was cleared and order was restored, and Congress certified Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice President of the United States. The coup failed. Democracy won. But four people died, and their blood is on Trump’s hands.