Beginning on the night of the 2020 election and continuing until his final days in office, Donald Trump unraveled and dragged America with him, to the point that his followers plundered the U.S. Capitol with two weeks left of his term. Axios takes you into the collapse of a president with a special series.
Episode 6: Georgia hasn’t supported a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992 and Donald Trump’s defeat in this Deep South stronghold, and his reaction to that loss, would help cost Republicans the US Senate as well. Georgia was Trump’s last resistance.
In Air Force One, President Trump was in a bad mood. He had made it clear that he did not want to return to Georgia, but somehow he was called up for another rally on the night of January 4.
If David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler – the two senators in trouble for Georgia for whom he was campaigning – lost the second round of elections the next day, the Republican Party would lose control of the United States Senate. And Trump did not want the blood of Georgia on his hands.
The TV in the plane’s conference room was on Fox News, muted. As the screen showed images of supporters filling the Dalton, Georgia rally space, Trump’s spirits improved briefly. “Look at this crowd,” he mused.
Fox then moved on to an interview with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – whom Trump hated for refusing to deny Joe Biden’s victory or validate myths about fraud. The president’s disgust has returned. “What a horrible, incompetent face,” he snarled.
The previous day, the Washington Post published an extraordinary recording of Trump’s call urging Raffensperger, a Republican, to “find” 11,780 votes to overturn the election results in Georgia. Trump accused Raffensperger of a “crime”.
Loeffler and Perdue were desperate to get Trump back to Georgia. They had supported their 11-hour demands for $ 2,000 stimulus checks, a turnaround for the two multimillionaire conservatives.
In exchange for an enthusiastic Trump at the rally, Loeffler submitted to an even bigger concession: she agreed to join other Trump supporters in the vote against certifying the results of the Electoral College that would take place on January 6 – the day after second round of Georgia. It was a decision she would reverse as soon as the protesters invaded the Capitol.
The situation in Georgia was worrying. Republicans feared that Trump’s volatile denunciations to senior state officials would cut participation.
In a series of phone calls in early and mid-November, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell tried to impress Trump on how big the stakes were for Georgia’s runoff. McConnell’s proposal was straightforward and clear: we need these victories to protect all the progress we’ve made on a number of issues, he warned. Trump’s legacy was on the ballot.
But the president was not listening. He would immediately sabotage these conversations with McConnell by complaining about the stolen election and his fraud plots.
Before the flight, Trump was informed about escape scenarios. Republicans correctly predicted that Democrats would dominate the initial vote in Georgia, but underestimated how large Democrats’ participation would be on January 5 itself. Republicans believed that 900,000 voters on election day would put them in a decent position to win the runoff and that anything above 1 million was gold. They were wrong.
Trump’s growing conspiracy convention in Congress had an important member in Air Force One that day. Joining the advisors and family members who usually accompanied the president was the newly appointed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who gained national notoriety for his previous support for QAnon and whose district included Dalton.
Also on board were two important allies – Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Club for Growth President David McIntosh, a former Indiana congressman who founded the Federalist Society and studied law with the late Supreme Court judge, Antonin Scalia.
They sat around the long table in the conference room on brown leather chairs, served quinoa salad with roasted chicken before the waiters brought macarons. Instead, Graham ordered his order for permanent dessert while flying in Air Force One: strawberries with cream.
The president went down when they had finished eating and stood at the head of the table, where he chatted with them for most of the flight. Graham and McIntosh, who exchanged strategy notes before the flight, tried to get him out of his mood.
“Look – if they win, you will be justified”, McIntosh said, begging Trump to offer a full endorsement by Loeffler and Perdue. “Everyone knows that if they win, you will get credit for putting them at the top. And that will show that in an election where they don’t cheat, Republicans win.”
Trump disagreed: “No, they won’t, David. They will blame me if we lose. But if we win, they won’t give me the credit.”
Graham tried another tactic: “This is about your legacy, Mr. President.”
“We need to win this so that Democrats cannot undo their legacy on everything from the courts to economic policies and their work with China,” insisted Graham.
At one point of the flight, Trump pulled McIntosh into his private office booth to sign an autograph for McIntosh’s personal trainer, an avid supporter of the president. McIntosh tried to open up a conversation about the future. “Mr. President, you know, if it doesn’t end …”
Trump interrupted, asking, “What are my chances?” – referring, 62 days after the election, to his chances of serving a second term. McIntosh leveled, “It doesn’t look great, sir.” Trump agreed: “Yes, it is probably right.”
“Mr. President, if it doesn’t work out, will you run again?” Asked McIntosh. Trump’s response was a rare and transient sign of his usual high-pitched pose. “Yes, I’m thinking about it,” he said. “But you know, I’m going to be four years older.”
In Dalton, Trump took the stage with his wife, pointing, smiling, waving and clapping, while Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” played. He was in his element and the crowd went crazy.
Less than 48 hours after Trump’s rally in Georgia, both races were called up for Democrats, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Republicans had lost control of the Senate.
Trump was right to say that everyone would blame him. After all, he spent months gaining confidence in the voting system, shooting at Georgia’s own Republican leadership and obsessed with claims that he had justly lost.
He had allowed strangers and conspirators to supplant the professionals around him. It fueled a national feeling of distrust, anger and despair. Georgia was the last state where Trump would take his position.
He was about to incinerate his legacy. Within 24 hours, the wild ground troops the president called on to execute his fantasy of overthrowing the election would invade the United States Capitol stairs.
🎧 Listen to Jonathan Swan in Axios’ new investigative podcast series, called “How it Happened: Trump’s last stand.”
Read the rest of the “Off the Rails” episodes on here.
About this series: Our report is based on several interviews with current and past White House officials, government and Congress officials, as well as direct eyewitnesses and people close to the president. The sources were granted anonymity to share sensitive observations or details that they would not be formally authorized to disclose. President Trump and other officials to whom quotes and actions have been attributed by others have had the opportunity to confirm, deny or respond to elements of the report prior to publication.
“Off the rails” is reported by White House reporter Jonathan Swan, with reporting and research assistance from Zach Basu. It was edited by Margaret Talev and Mike Allen. Illustrations by Sarah Grillo, Aïda Amer and Eniola Odetunde.