- Aides described President Donald Trump being deployed and ignoring his calls during the invasion of the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday.
- An official told The Washington Post that Trump was blinded by “this notion that he was treated unfairly” and struggled to understand the events.
- Axios and Politico reported that some of Trump’s close friends and advisers were trying to avoid him and gave up trying to communicate.
- Axios reported, to paraphrase sources, that the president was “mentally inaccessible”.
- According to the Post, Trump was furious at Vice President Mike Pence, who chaired the Congressional session to confirm Joe Biden as president-elect and “couldn’t get it right.”
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President Donald Trump was separated from reality when his supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol, according to several reports citing people close to him.
Trump’s advisers are said to have given up trying to communicate with him during the crisis.
During the attack, which forced Congress to temporarily abandon the process of certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the election, Trump was in the White House defending his supporters and refusing to condemn the violence, The Washington Post reported.
A government official described the president as “a total monster”, “so moved by this notion that he has been treated unfairly that he cannot see the big picture”.
The official was referring to Trump’s long-standing and false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen due to electoral fraud – allegations that were repeatedly rejected in court.
Axios wrote, to paraphrase his sources, that Trump’s closest friends and White House officials were “avoiding him like the plague” and that they “gave up trying to communicate with him, considering him mentally inaccessible”.
On Wednesday afternoon, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said that Trump’s advisers were trying to get him to issue a strong statement against the violence, but that he was “ignoring these pleas.”
Haberman also reported, quoting a Trump adviser, that people close to Trump were “certain that the president wanted this and is enjoying it”.
According to Politico, there were fewer than normal employees at Trump. He noted that senior White House adviser Jared Kushner was traveling from the Middle East that day.
“I don’t know who’s getting to talk to him right now,” said Politico, citing a former senior government official.
A Republican that Politico described as close to Trump also told the outlet: “I don’t want to talk to him … What am I going to say? This is one of those times when I don’t know if I want to be involved.”
According to the Post, Trump was so angry at Vice President Mike Pence, who chaired the Congressional session, that “he couldn’t see right.”
Trump has recently asked Pence to reject the Electoral College votes for Biden and declare Trump the winner of the 2020 election – something the vice president has no power to do.
Read More: Lawmakers, Hill officials and reporters recount the harrowing experience of a violent pro-Trump crowd invading the Capitol to protest the counting of electoral votes
As protesters invaded the Capitol, the president continued to attack the election results on Twitter. About two and a half hours later, he released a video asking his supporters to stop the violence on Capitol Hill.
But in the video, the president continued to push his false claims that the election was stolen from him and said to his supporters, “We love you; you are very special.”
Twitter later blocked the president from his account, citing the tweets and the video. However, the social platform said Trump removed the tweets that led to his suspension and that he would have access to his account again on Thursday.