They come, day after day, a stampede of screaming subject lines dispatched from an alternate universe where the outcome of the presidential election remains in doubt.

“F.R.A.U.D.”

“This Election isn’t over.”

Such is the communication from the Trump campaign more than a week and a half after news networks declared Joe Biden the president-elect after he eliminated the last mathematical path to a Trump victory.

For those rooted in reality, the Trump campaign’s missives might seem comical. Yet experts say they’re far from a laughing matter; rather, they are part of the president’s latest assault on the norms underpinning American democracy.