NEW YORK: President Donald trumpThe administration is ending as it began, with exaggerated statements of praise for the CEO.
But now the flattery is mixed with a sense of finality, as key people in the president’s orbit are beginning to turn the page and acknowledge their defeat.
Trump himself remains in the Oval Office, still fighting the election day results and offering scant recognition of the death and suffering that Americans are enduring in the darkest hours of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a week when the Electoral College made President-elect Joe Biden’s victory official, Trump stayed out of sight, stayed late in the Oval Office, and remotely operated telephones and television in his private dining room just steps away. from the Resolute Desk.
While he didn’t make a single public appearance, some of those who have been his most influential allies and loyal advocates dropped out of the fight, disappointing the president as mildly as possible.
Attorney General William Barr offered his resignation last Monday after weeks of tension with Trump led to an early departure from office.
Long viewed as one of Trump’s most supportive members of the Cabinet, Barr in recent weeks and months had drawn Trump’s ire for failing to support the president’s unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud or for failing to publicly conduct an investigation. about Biden’s son Hunter.
But when Barr stepped aside, he did so in flowery language reminiscent of the compliments thrown as verbal bouquets to Trump during early Cabinet meetings.
“His record is all the more historic because he succeeded in the face of relentless and relentless resistance,” Barr wrote in his resignation letter. Trump quickly tweeted it, adding his own words of praise for the attorney general.
In the six weeks since his loss to Biden, Trump has withdrawn more and more from his job.
The virus has killed more than 300,000 Americans and now claims more than 3,000 lives a day, but the president has barely offered a word about the deaths or the development of the vaccine that could end the pandemic.
At the same time, he has relentlessly tweeted conspiracy theories and false claims about the election, incorrectly insisting that they were stolen from him while taking steps to undermine the Biden administration before it begins. Most Republicans agreed, refusing to pressure Trump to stop or work with the president-elect.
Many in the Republican Party followed the lead of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who refused to stand up to Trump, instead calculating that an outraged Republican rank and file, and an angry president, could help produce victories in a pair of January runoff elections in Georgia that will dictate Senate control. But last week, even McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, leaned toward reality, declaring that the Electoral College had “spoken” and that Biden was the winner.
McConnell’s recognition that Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris had won came only after a lengthy public recap of Trump’s achievements in the Senate. McConnell spoke about Trump for nine minutes, declaring that “many of us expected the presidential election to yield a different result.” He talked about Biden for a minute.
Some of Trump’s fiercest allies also seemed to give credence, albeit briefly, to the election result. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in an appearance on cable television that Trump was in a strong position for a possible 2024 campaign, an indirect recognition that he will not be president next year.
Others close to Trump also marked the imminent end. His daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump began tweeting photos of moments throughout the period. His son Eric Trump and his family posed for photos outside the Oval Office. Employees in the west wing posted photos on Instagram of the White House Christmas parties, and most of the people in the photo were not wearing masks.
Vice President Mike Pence continued to play his role as Trump’s biggest hype, even as the cheerleaders arrived with a touch of nostalgia. Pence in a ceremony on Friday marked the first anniversary of the United States Space Force, which he framed as an important part of Trump’s legacy.
But with Trump largely in hiding, it was up to Pence to make a public demonstration of meeting with those who were distributing the vaccine. And on Friday, he was the one who rolled up his sleeves and received a public injection in the arm as part of a campaign to convince Americans that the vaccine is safe.
Trump has been happy to receive accolades during his presidency. At times, your cabinet meetings resembled “Dear Leader” sessions in authoritarian countries where officials greet the man in charge.
The tone was set at the president’s first cabinet meeting, in June 2017, when the only topic of debate appeared on whether Trump was a great president or the greatest. With the media invited to watch, Trump praised the accomplishments of his young administration, stating that it had accomplished more than any president in its first six months, with “few exceptions” such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
That day, Pence declared that his job was “the greatest privilege of my life.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was “excited,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry dipped his hat to Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross welcomed “the opportunity” to work for the president.
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