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WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) – President Donald Trump’s advisers described a leadership vacuum in the White House on Saturday (Nov. 7) after he lost re-election and the internal allegations began, even as his associates wondered how he would deal with defeat. .
The race was canceled while Trump was at his golf course in Northern Virginia. Many of his exhausted helpers had headed home over the weekend, to rest and escape the latest coronavirus outbreak to sweep through the West Wing.
Outside the White House, a jubilant crowd of Joe Biden supporters from across the Washington region gathered to celebrate what the city has called Black Lives Matters Plaza. The corridors of the White House itself were practically empty.
There was no all-staff meeting or memo on how officials should react. It was a stark contrast to the scene four years ago, when, after Trump won the election, President Barack Obama gathered his own dejected staff in the Oval Office for a pep talk.
The void has left employees not knowing what’s next. Trump’s advisers are divided on how far to take various legal struggles, delaying consideration of the strategy both in politics and in court. And the campaign has offered little additional clarity to surrogates, even when preparing them to contest an election that seems beyond the president’s reach.
Hands out
Most of the people interviewed for this story asked not to be identified discussing internal conversations.
Dan Eberhart, a donor who gave the president at least US $ 100,000 (S $ 130,000) for his reelection effort, said the mood among Republicans is “desperate.”
The Trump campaign held a call with donors Saturday morning and asked for contributions to fund legal struggles after the president’s election. Eberhart said he couldn’t immediately recall a time when the fundraiser, in particular, was the subject of a surrogate call.
“The message was fair, they will keep fighting,” Eberhart said.
A close external adviser to the president said Trump had been wrong in not simplifying his legal argument: requesting recounts, as well as reviewing and adjudicating any wrongdoing or allegations of criminal conduct. That would have put the onus on the Democrats to defend any opposition to the counts and scrutiny watchers, the aide said.
Instead, the president’s effort to challenge the election result is haphazard and seems unlikely to change the final results.
No concrete examples
Minutes after the networks announced the race for Biden, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared in front of a Philadelphia landscaping company, located between a crematorium and an adult movie store, to declare that the president wouldn’t budge. He and a Trump adviser, Corey Lewandowksi, insisted that the Pennsylvania election had been riddled with irregularities, if not outright fraud, but did not provide concrete examples.
In Nevada earlier this week, two Trump allies, former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell and Conservative Union President Matt Schlapp, refused during an impromptu press conference to tell local journalists their names, and much less questions about your allegations of voter fraud. in the state.
And in Wisconsin, the state has requested $ 3 million from the Trump campaign to pay a bill, a sizable financial commitment for an organization that is using some of the donations for its legal effort to pay off unspecified debts.
Another person close to the president predicted that the blame game will soon begin in earnest.
Targeting Meadows
Certainly, some remarks will be reserved for Trump’s fourth chief of staff, Mark Meadows. He regularly downplayed dire warnings from members of the president’s coronavirus task force, rather than encouraging the president to pressure the nation to reopen, despite polls showing deep voter concern over the pandemic.
Meadows was absent from the West Wing on Saturday, having been diagnosed this week with coronavirus. At least four other White House aides and a campaign staff member also tested positive for the second major White House-related outbreak in less than a month.
The infections sent a new wave of anxiety into Trump’s world, with public videos of Meadows, unmasked, interacting with nearly every major campaign and White House official in the days leading up to his diagnosis.
Among those potentially exposed was presidential son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who tried unsuccessfully to save a campaign he largely dictated, particularly after the president deposed campaign manager Brad Parscale and replaced him with former House political aide. Blanca Bill Stepien in July. .
‘Like a gladiator’
People around the president believe that Trump will admit defeat in some form, at some point.
Mick Mulvaney, the president’s former acting chief of staff, said he expected Trump to “fight like a gladiator until the election is conclusively determined” but ultimately respect the results.
“America needs to know that the winner is actually the winner,” Mulvaney wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “And once Americans know that, I have every expectation that Mr. Trump will act and speak as a great president should – win or lose.”
Others said that what the president wants most to avoid is the perception of failure. In a national address Thursday night, Trump touted his party’s Senate victories and achievements in the House, his success in adding non-white voters to his column since 2016, and the record number of Republican female candidates elected to office on Tuesday: an effort to polish his political position even in defeat.
And at least one ally predicted that Trump could declare that he will run again in 2024 even before his term ends in January.
“Let Biden have it,” the person said. “We will get it back in four years.”
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