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Credit, Reuters
Trump returns to the White House after spending the day playing golf while Biden was declared the winner of the electoral dispute
For the past four years, I have personally seen US President Donald Trump on good days and bad days. But on November 7, when he lost the election to Democrat Joe Biden, it was a day like no other.
Dressed in a windbreaker, black pants and a white Maga (Make America Great Again) cap, the president left the White House minutes before 10 am (local time). He had spent part of the previous hours tweeting allegations of voter fraud.
Outside, he leaned forward slightly, as if pushed by the wind. He boarded a dark-colored vehicle and headed to his golf club, Trump National, in Sterling, Virginia, about 25 miles from the White House.
At that moment, he projected a confident air. It was a beautiful day, perfect for golfing, and I was spending the day at the club.
But the people who worked for Trump seemed nervous.
“How are you?” I asked one of them.
“Okay,” he said. She smiled, but narrowed her eyes. And he looked at his phone.
Election trauma
The vote took place a few days ago, on Tuesday (11/3), but it seems that it has been much longer. The White House has experienced some trauma since the election.
One occurred when Fox News, known for its more pro-Trump coverage, declared that Biden had won in the state of Arizona, sparking a crisis in the White House and a fight against the channel’s leadership because Trump feared that the narrative of a defeat dominated the following voting days.
Another trauma at the White House was going through the covid-19 pandemic. Many of the work desks in the west wing (west wing) were empty when I walked in there on Saturday morning (7/11). Several employees had been infected with the coronavirus and were out of the office. Others were quarantined.
Credit, fake images
Trump spent hours playing golf at his club in Virginia
Then, from 11:30 a.m., while the president was at his golf club, the BBC and the US networks began to project and declare the victory of Joe Biden, Trump’s opponent.
I was sitting in an Italian restaurant about 1 km from the club when I heard the news. I’m a member of the White House press group, a small group of journalists who travel with the president. We were all waiting for him to leave the golf club.
“It’s toxic,” said a woman outside the restaurant who, like most of her neighbors in this Democratic-oriented area, voted for Biden.
Others wondered aloud when the president would leave the club and return to the White House. Minutes passed, then hours.
“He’s in his time,” a policeman said quietly to a colleague.
The president was in no rush to leave. At the club, he was surrounded by friends. Outside the gates, supporters yelled at me and other reporters: “‘Invest in the media!” (Alluding to the request of the black movements to divest from the police and direct resources to social programs).
A woman in medium heels and a red, white and blue scarf carried a sign that read “Stop the theft” (in reference to Trump’s ruling calling for an end to the count for allegations, without evidence, of fraud at the polls).
A man was driving his truck back and forth in front of the club with several flags, including one that depicted the president standing on a tank, as if he were the commander of the world. It illustrates how his supporters view him and how Trump has viewed himself in the past four years.
Credit, fake images
Trump uses the side entrance to the White House after spending the day playing golf
Then he finally left the club and began his journey to the White House.
His critics, thousands of them, were waiting for him.
‘You lose and we all win’
The president’s convoy passed through Virginia. Other journalists and I were in a pickup truck that nearly got into an accident on Fairfax County Parkway. The sirens sounded.
Critics of the President took to the streets Saturday to voice criticism of Trump and celebrate Biden’s victory
The closer we got to the White House, the bigger the crowd – people were there to celebrate their defeat. Someone raised a sign: “You lose and we all win.” People honked and scoffed.
So when we returned to the White House, the president entered through a side door, an entrance that presidents rarely use. His shoulders were slumped and his head bowed.
He looked up and saw me and others in the press group and gave us the go-ahead. It was an indifferent gesture. He did not raise his hand or shake his fist, as he usually does.
Whether in the White House or at the golf club, the president has never wavered: he makes unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud and insists he will win.
So far he has failed to concede victory to his opponent, a traditional gesture in American politics. But family members and allies are divided on the strategy of not accepting defeat.
According to a CNN report, First Lady Melania Trump and her son-in-law Jared Kushner argue that she should concede, but two of her oldest sons, Eric and Donald Jr., disagree and support the legal battle against the result of the polls.
That November 7, he tweeted, in the morning, about votes “illegally received” and, in the late afternoon, he declared defiantly in capital letters: “I WON THE ELECTIONS.”
But that was Trump on Twitter.
The man I saw up close made a very different impression on me. When he walked through the side door of the White House that afternoon, the arrogance was gone.
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