Inside the gates, Trump grows angry and discouraged when he sees his chances slip away

WASHINGTON (The Washington Post) .- During a visit at noon Tuesday, election day, to campaign headquarters, the President Donald trump He said he had not yet paid much attention to a victory or concession speech. “I hope we will only do one of these two,” he said. “And, you know, winning is easy. Losing is never easy. Not for me, it isn’t.”

But on Tuesday night, it became increasingly clear that Trump would not be making a speech.

Snuggled up with family members and advisers including Kellyanne Conway, campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski, chief of staff Mark Meadows and former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, first at the residence of the White House, then in the card room, Trump became more and more agitated.

When Fox News, the president’s friendliest cable channel, said Arizona, which Trump won in 2016, was won by Biden, the president implored his team to “change this result”said a person familiar with his exhortations.

Although aides tried to prepare Trump for what the mail-in ballots would likely favor Biden, he was “really surprised,” in the words of a campaign adviser, when the votes came for his opponent.

Rather than questioning whether his campaign rhetoric demonizing mail-in ballots could have cost him the election, the president took the results as justification for his take on the process, advisers said.

“The president’s position is that they will keep looking for the ballots until they have enough.”said a counselor.

Trump started complaining about voter fraud and election theft, and when he appeared in the east wing of the White House around 2 a.m. Wednesday for comment, he was determined to declare victory, even though his grades didn’t. included such a statement.

“Frankly, we won this election,” Trump said in comments that were harshly criticized, including by many of his allies. Some of those in the room, including Lewandowski and Meadows, did not clap with others after the impromptu line. Vice President Mike Pence, who took on a different tone on stage early Wednesday, made no public appearances or comments on Wednesday or Thursday.

In some ways, the chaos and the latest drama was its own version of normalcy for those who worked in Trump’s orbit.

“One thing people generally forget is that for decades, long before the presidency, his whole life was in crisis and he thrived in that environment,” one of the sources said. “It would be boring if he stood there speechless or won big. He really would be a Trump if there was no calamity.”

Yet by Wednesday night Trump had started telling his allies he thought he could lose, but only because they were “stealing the election,” a campaign official said. And when he woke up on Thursday, he was angry again and anxious to adopt a more provocative tone, advisers said.

The president was eager to speak publicly on Thursday about the election, arguing his legitimate victory was stolen. and that the states were plotting against him. But once again, allies and advisers have advised caution, trying to calm Trump down and urging him to keep a low profile.

But on Thursday night, the president appeared before reporters at the White House at around 6:45 p.m., made a series of unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and vowed to continue the fight through legal channels.

He mocked mailed ballots and media polls and falsely claimed that states fabricated ballots to cost him elections. He made a number of other baseless accusations against democratic elections. But privately, several people close to the countryside said the mood had started to darken..

Some in the president’s orbit, including his family, have been outraged that more Republicans have not echoed his aggressive comments and are publicly fighting for his re-election. Trump’s oldest son Donald Trump Jr. asked on Twitter that “Republican Party 2024 hopefuls” speak for his father, a not-so-vague allusion to the influence the president and his family are likely to have over the Republican Party for years to come.

Two senior campaign officials said they expected a public relations effort, as well as a legal operation on voter fraud, to continue for days, if not weeks. They’ve started asking donors to hand out big checks for the effort, according to two people familiar with the plot.

While they remained optimistic that he could ultimately win in Arizona, they privately admitted that they believed Pennsylvania would likely lose. “The game is not over, but he is getting a lot away from Trump”said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor.

The Washington Post

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