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President Trump and President-elect Biden.
Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images, Drew Angerer / Getty I
- President Donald Trump, since the Nov.3 election, has made few public appearances and appears to have neglected normal presidential duties.
- You haven’t invited President-elect Joe Biden to the Oval Office.
- Biden is apparently choosing to ignore this.
A week after losing the US election, President Donald Trump remained locked in the White House on Tuesday, pushing an alternate reality that he is about to win and blocking Democrat Joe Biden’s ability to prepare for the transition.
“WE WILL WIN!” the Republican president tweeted, adding: “WE ARE MAKING GREAT PROGRESS. RESULTS BEGIN TO COME IN NEXT WEEK. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The message concerned Trump’s unprecedented decision to have an American president contest a lost election, refusing to give in to his opponent and mounting a series of flimsy court challenges in states where Biden won.
Several lawsuits have been dismissed almost immediately, and the rest clearly have no chance of nullifying Biden’s few but compelling victories in various states.
Trump’s attempt to hold on to power has become all-consuming for the man who often publicly mocks his rivals as “losers.”
Since Election Day on November 3, he has made few public appearances and appears to have neglected normal presidential duties.
His only known activities outside the White House have been playing golf twice over the weekend, after the results came in.
Typically, routine presidential intelligence briefings have been off the daily schedule. He has not mentioned the dramatic spike in the Covid-19 pandemic across the country.
And his once-daily press conferences, Fox News interviews, or impromptu question-and-answer sessions with White House reporters have been sold out.
Instead, Trump has spent much of his time tweeting, mostly about what he says is the stolen election. He sometimes refers to the supportive comments of right-wing anchors on Fox News, tweeting quotes from shows on the network’s daily programming.
Trump’s only significant presidential action has been the abrupt firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Monday, which he announced on Twitter.
Exactly four years ago, on Tuesday, Trump had just won his surprise victory over Hillary Clinton and toured the White House for the first time as the guest of outgoing Democratic President Barack Obama.
That courtesy to presidents-elect is an old tradition, highlighting the nation’s almost sacred respect for the peaceful transfer of power.
Trump, who took office promising to change institutions and what he called “the deep state,” is now breaking another custom.
Not only has he failed to invite Biden to chat in the Oval Office, but he is blocking the Democrat’s access to the facilities, funding and expertise that usually comes in a package ready to help the incoming leader.
The release of this transition aid is controlled by the Director of the General Services Administration, Emily Murphy, who was appointed by Trump.
Biden, who won with a record number of votes but acknowledges that nearly half the electorate backed Trump, is apparently choosing to ignore the chaos.
He rarely even mentions Trump, Biden has established a coronavirus task force and delivered his latest political speech on Tuesday, this time on the fate of the Obamacare health care plan that Trump is asking the Supreme Court to dismantle.
Washington is full of speculation about who, if anyone, in Trump’s inner circle will eventually persuade him to leave.
Former President George W. Bush, the only living Republican former president, congratulated Biden on his victory, but it is an outlier in a party dominated by the still very popular Trump.
On Monday, the Republican leader in Congress, Sen. Mitch McConnell, said Trump was “100 percent within his rights” to challenge the election in court.
It’s unclear how long that level of support will last, or even how long Trump will want to stick with the presidency.
None of the lawsuits appear to have the potential to change the outcome of the voting and even a planned recount in Georgia, or anywhere else, is unlikely to change fundamental mathematics.
But Trump added a potential new weapon to his crusade against the results on Monday when his attorney general, Bill Barr, agreed to authorize investigations into “specific allegations” of fraud.
Barr added a warning that “misleading, speculative, fanciful or implausible claims should not be a basis for initiating federal investigations.”
However, Barr’s unusual intervention in the dispute raised concerns that Trump will go even further in his efforts. The Justice Department’s top election crimes prosecutor, Richard Pilger, resigned in protest.
Biden’s inauguration is January 20, 71 days away.
