Tonight is the night. The 2016 Presidential Election is coming to an end. One candidate will become the President of the United States of America and one will smile through the loss and and say congratulations to the winner (we hope). I predict the aftermath not going so smoothly however. If Trump comes out a loser I can picture his, “the government is a joke” and “our system is rigged by people just like crooked Hillary” tweets.

Trump has focused a lot of energy accusing the system of being rigged. I don’t see that changing if he loses tonight. I think that post election, his rhetoric towards the polls and the votes will focus a lot about how they don’t reflect what Americans truly want if he loses. But, if he does win there will absolutely no mention of a rigged system. But how does this argument hurt Trump is he does win? Would the argument of a rigged system bring into question the legitimacy of his victory?

And tonight I sit here getting distracted by the news and watch state by state turn red. Red for republican, red for Donald Trump. The only question I have for myself is how did we get here? How is Donald Trump the likely winner?

Maybe I should be eating my own words as I predicted in the past that due to Trump’s lack of strong rhetorical strategies he wouldn’t gain more voters. Tonight’s poll results are proving me wrong. Trump has won 168 electoral votes at the moment and key states such as Ohio, South Carolina and Florida. Maybe his use of women surrogate speakers did reach women. And maybe his aim to present himself as a regular, normal American designated with a lot of working class, rural Americans. Or maybe he just did a hell of a good job convincing America that Hilary is a liar and untrustworthy and that his own shortcoming don’t measure up.

Whatever the reason is, the election is shaping out to show the win leaning towards Trump.

The election is just a week away and the polls are showing the candidates somewhat evening out. Could this be because of the October surprise? Or are the polls even an accurate representation of how the election will turn out? How has Donald Trump altered his rhetorical strategy post another Clinton email scandal and how will he react to accusations that Paul Manafort had ties with Russia?

The way I see it, Trump hasn’t been a stranger to controversy during his campaign and his rhetorical strategy hasn’t really changed (at least in terms of his speaking.) It usually includes a brief recognition of the issue, such as regarding the leaked 2005 video as “locker room talk” and then he moves on. This strategy on response to scandals surrounding him has somewhat worked for Trump. Yes, his numbers dropped but they eventually made there way back up over the course of the month.

With the election quickly approaching we also see Trump call Hillary “Crooked Hillary” time and time again. This nickname has been at the front of his campaign since the beginning, and the recent FBI investigation is only making him scream it louder. With hopes of convincing America how untrustworthy Hilary is, this a rhetorical strategy Trump will undoubtedly continue to use until November 8th.

It is also interesting to consider how when Mr. Trump was down in the polls he claimed he system was rigged but now that he is coming back up that argument seems to have disappeared. Trump even Tweeted, “Wow even leading in @ABC/@Washingtonpost Poll 46 to 45. Gone up 12 points in 2 weeks, mostly before the Crooked Hillary blow-up!”

Trump can only hope that the latest scandal revolving around Hillary will turn just enough people away from her and onto him so that he can secure the Presidency. If he doesn’t win I think it is very obvious we will hear the rigged argument just a few more times.

With the last Presidential debate happening in just hours one can only assume that Republican Candidate Donald Trump will focus on voter fraud. He has always accused the election of being rigged but as his numbers in the polls decline we see him focus his rhetorical strategy around the corruption of the American political establishment and the media.

The American Constitution was signed with a primary goal of elections being fair. This is a core value of American Democracy and Trump accusing the system of being corrupt further pushes home his point of being a political outsider and anti-establishment. This rhetorical strategy would give Trump and excuse if he looses however, it could spark a national problem regarding the legitimacy to Clinton’s Presidency if she took home the win.

To further this rhetorical strategy of pushing the argument that the election is rigged he has used surrogate speakers, such as former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to help draw attention in the media on this issue. However, House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he will no longer work for Trump’s election and is “fully confident” the election will be conducted with integrity.

Trump has also strategically used women surrogate speakers, such as his wife, to speak out again the sexual assault allegations against him. These allegations of sexual assault are definitely not helping Trump in the polls. After having a difficult time reaching women voters these claims come at a time that is detrimental to Trumps campaign. The allegations on top of the 2005 video that was released have only pushed potential voters away. His strategy of considering what he said “locker room talk” hasn’t seemed to work for him following the second debate. Maybe it also had something to do with that fact the he barely (if even) apologized for his comments.

At this point, I see Trumps rhetorical strategy as a failure and almost as a scare tactic in a lot ditch effort to win undecided voters. I do not predict any changes in the polls after this debate. I think that Trumps poll numbers have flatlined. I do not think that he will win over anymore undecided voters but I also think that his long time supporters will continue to support him.

We’ve all seen the memes floating around about how Trump and Clinton argued like our parents do over directions on the way to our weird Uncle Larry’s house for Thanksgiving. Trump shouted, sniffled, and made sure he was heard while Clinton nodded her head, gave a cheeky soft smile, and thought of a comeback. Nielson estimated that nearly 80 million people tuned in and watched (or cringed) at the debate. So what are the polls saying after the debate?

Well, it is pretty obvious that the polls aren’t in favor of business man turned presidential candidate Donald Trump. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he said, “it could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400lbs” when referring to who was behind the DNC hack. Or maybe it was Clinton mentioning, one of the worst things he has said about women, referring to Trump calling former Miss USA winner Miss Piggy and Miss Housekeeping because she was Latina. And when he called in on Fox and Friends to try and dispute this claim all he had to say for himself was, “and she was the worst we ever had, the worst, the absolute worst… She gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.”

The only REAL problem I see here is for Mr. Trump and his diminishing polls. He has consistently had a problem getting support from female voters and the incidents after the debate certainly aren’t prompting women to go down to the voting station and check the box for Mr. Trump.

The upcoming debates will be crucial for Trump and his standing in the polls. But, will Trump make changes to his harsh rhetorical strategies in order to win over voters or will he continue down the same slipper slope that put him at the bottom of the polls post debate?