The week
Trump would have started to ‘choreograph’ the premature victory speech weeks before the election
President Trump is known for getting off the script, but his premature declaration of victory in the presidential election in the early morning hours of November 4 was not a totally impulsive decision, reports Jonathan Swan of Axios. portion of a series reported on Trump’s last two months in office, Swan writes that Trump began “choreographing election night for real” during the second week of October after a “toxic” debate with President-elect Joe Biden on 29 September and a fight with COVID-19 that led to his hospitalization. At that point, Trump’s internal poll numbers reportedly dropped, Swan notes. With that in mind, he called his first White House chief of staff, a stunned Reince Priebus, and “staged his script, including walking to a podium and declaring victory prematurely on election night if it looked like he was ahead. In fact, in preparation for election day, Trump kept his focus on the so-called “red mirage,” the early vote count that would show many undefined states turning red because the ballots had not yet been counted. Trump, reports Swan, intended “turn him into a weapon for his vast base of followers,” who would go to bed thinking he had secured a second term, probably planting the seeds of a stolen election. Read more at Axios.> As I wrote, the plan was to steal the election all the time. Fantastic report here. https://t.co/k8C73o8vH7 >> – Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) January 16, 2021More stories from theweek.com 5 more hard-hitting cartoons about the second Trump’s impeachment The Trump vaccine delay is making Biden’s inaugural speech suspicious expected to boost unity, optimism