‘In a dark place’: Before condemning violence, Trump spent increasingly isolated and angry day

The video, tweeted shortly after 7 p.m., followed pressure from advisers to respond more forcefully to the riot on Capitol Hill, which left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer. Several of his closest advisers have publicly condemned his response to the violence, and White House attorney Pat Cipollone has warned the president that he risks riot-related legal exposure, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

The president has spent the day in the White House without access to the social media accounts that helped him take power, with advisers describing him as increasingly angry and isolated. His Twitter account was locked for a while and Facebook banned him from its platform, citing posts that companies believed incited violence or undermined the electoral process.

Members of his inner circle, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Senior Advisor Stephen Miller, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Mr Cipollone and the President’s daughter Ivanka Trump urged him to issue another statement on Thursday, aides said. the Americans needed to hear directly from the president.

They informed the president of the importance of dissuading supporters from participating in violent riots on behalf of Mr. Trump, especially in the run-up to inauguration day, assistants said.

On Thursday morning, the President spoke very briefly over the members’ breakfast at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting in Florida, thanking donors for their service to the party, but did not address the riots. , according to a person close to the conversation. .

Later that day, he awarded the Medal of Freedom to golfers Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player in a private ceremony.

Mr Trump had planned to spend the weekend at Camp David, but a White House official said those plans were scrapped. Officials were also preparing for a possible presidential trip to Texas next week for a border event, a White House aide said.

In times of past crisis, the President has often spent hours on the phone, calling dozens of friends and advisers for their advice. That was not the case on Wednesday and Thursday, advisers said, as several of the president’s closest advisers publicly condemned his response to the riots. He also rejected calls from advisers, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who said he spent 25 minutes on Wednesday trying to contact the president to urge him to call for an end to the violence.

The White House declined to comment.

Advisers said the president remains enraged at Vice President Mike Pence for what he sees as betrayal for refusing to try to block Congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory . Several White House officials walked away from the Oval Office Thursday, wanting to avoid a president described by an adviser as “in a dark place”. Advisers said the president seemed more absorbed in his electoral loss than remorse for the riot.

“It’s like watching someone destroy themselves in front of your eyes, and you can’t do anything,” said another adviser who recently spoke to the president.

Shortly before the president left the White House to speak to supporters on Wednesday, Mr Pence told him he did not have the constitutional authority to prevent the counting of certain voters, which the president did had pushed him to do, according to people familiar. with the conversation. Mr Pence said it would set a bad precedent if he strayed from course, according to one of the people.

The president was furious, the people said. “I don’t want to be your friend,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Pence, according to one of the people. “I want you to be the vice president.”

Many of the president’s aides have been troubled by his attacks on Mr Pence, one of his most staunch allies. Some of the president’s advisers praised Mr. Pence for following the constitution under pressure from Mr. Trump to overturn the election results.

The violence on Capitol Hill Wednesday and its aftermath also unfolded against the backdrop of yet another blow to the White House and the Republican Party: losses in two Senate votes in Georgia, meaning Democrats will control both Chambers of Congress as well as the White House from January 20. Several of the president’s advisers criticized his aggressive accusations of fraud for Republicans’ losses this week.

Meanwhile, the ranks around the president thinned within 24 hours of the riot on Capitol Hill. On Thursday, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao became the first cabinet secretary to resign, citing the “completely avoidable” assault on Capitol Hill. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos resigned Thursday night, saying in a letter to the president that there was “no mistake about the impact of your rhetoric” on Wednesday’s events. At least five other administration officials have also resigned, and several others – including national security adviser Robert O’Brien – have considered doing so, aides said. Mr O’Brien is expected to stay for the time being due to national security concerns, they said.

“People are very realistic about the gravity of the situation,” said one adviser. Many White House officials are disheartened by the events of the past 24 hours and see it as a terrible way to end the presidency, the adviser said.

On Wednesday, the president was in “bunker mode,” according to a person close to the White House, as aides struggled to persuade him to condemn the violence on Capitol Hill.

The president’s advisers – including the vice president – were appalled at his reluctance to do so, people familiar with the conversations said. Mr Trump must have been coaxed into posting tweets and a subsequent video statement urging the rioters to return home – in which he called them “very special” and said “we love you” – because he “doesn’t didn’t want to do anything, ”said one of the people.

The president’s inner circle is the smallest it has ever been, people close to him have said. He communicates more and more widely with the dedicated advisers Mr. Miller, John McEntee and Dan Scavino. Even some of Mr. Trump’s staunchest supporters have distanced themselves. Senator Lindsey Graham (R., SC) told the Senate Wednesday night: “Count on me. Enough is enough.”

The president’s own advisers say they view his recent behavior as increasingly self-destructive. Aides watched the riots on Capitol Hill unfold on television in horror. One adviser described the president’s conduct as increasingly erratic and unpredictable.

Some administration officials as well as outside advisers to the president have started talks over invoking the 25th Amendment, according to a senior administration official and others familiar with the matter, with lawmakers on both sides calling for the cabinet to do so. The move would allow Mr. Pence to take over as president if cabinet officials found Mr. Trump incapable of doing his job. But it’s widely seen as unlikely to come to fruition, people familiar with the talks said, in part because the president has less than two weeks in his tenure.

It’s unclear what the remaining 13 days of Mr. Trump’s presidency will look like. Administration officials have drafted a series of executive orders the president could sign on issues such as the role of independent agencies and US purchasing requirements for renewable energy. But several officials said it had been difficult to focus Mr. Trump’s attention on political issues.

Administration officials have also been engulfed in the pardon talks in recent weeks. Among those for whom a pardon has been discussed is rapper Lil Wayne, who in December pleaded guilty to a federal gun charge, people familiar with the conversations said. Mr. Trump met the rapper in October.

The president recently told advisers he was considering forgiving himself before stepping down, something some allies have urged him to do but the legal basis for which is questionable, according to a person familiar with the talks. The New York Times first reported on his recent interest and Mr. Cipollone’s warning about the president’s legal exposure.

The Justice Department, in a 1974 legal memorandum, said that a president could not forgive himself under the legal principle that “no one can be a judge in his own case”, but some jurists are not d agree with the opinion and it has never been tested in court. . Mr Trump said in 2018 that he had the “absolute right” to forgive himself, “but why would I do it when I haven’t done anything wrong?”

—Catherine Lucey and Alex Leary contributed to this article.

Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at [email protected] and Andrew Restuccia at [email protected]