WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s allies hope Wednesday will mark his last resistance in a week-long effort to challenge the results of the November election, with several people close to Trump privately acknowledging that his options will be exhausted as soon as the Congress tabulate the votes of the Electoral College.
“It is difficult to see anything beyond tomorrow,” said a senior government official on Tuesday, adding that everyone, including Trump, already considers the efforts of dozens of Republicans in Congress to stop or delay tabulation as “uphill” .
However, people close to Trump also say that he may still not budge after this final step in the electoral process, as his determination to reverse the results has only intensified, despite having failed several times – including state certifications and the College meeting. Election last month – and dozens of legal defeats.
“It will get worse before it gets better,” said one of Trump’s allies. “He lost his re-election. So for someone who has no sense of shame, there is no downside to letting all the crazy people go.”
There is no serious discussion about using the military in any way to block President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, officials said. But some of Trump’s allies pushed the idea, and people close to him said they cannot rule out that he will consider ave-maria’s options to retain power as the end of his presidency approaches.
“He won’t stop,” said a Republican with ties to the White House, suggesting that Trump will continue to press his complaints beyond Wednesday’s Congressional process. “He’s ashamed.”
Trump’s ally described him as “increasingly desperate”. And another person close to Trump said that his behavior in recent days, especially when pressing Georgia’s Secretary of State to find votes for him, “shows in his own words that there is no way to win in these electoral challenges.”
People close to Trump have said that he took his allegations of electoral fraud much further than they thought.
After the election, they believed that in the days and weeks to come he would be closer to accepting the results, although he never expected him to suffer. But instead, he moved further away from accepting his loss, began clinging to strange theories and isolated allies who were not entirely in agreement, they said.
Trump is expected to speak at a rally in Washington on Wednesday to gain support for his efforts. But his advisers and allies said there was no clear plan for how he would proceed during the past two weeks in office. The only thing they said is sure is that Trump will leave the White House on January 20, when Biden takes office.
What happens before that, they said, is unclear – although Trump plans to issue a series of pardons.
The few remaining members of Trump’s re-election campaign team see Wednesday’s Capitol proceedings as an end point and a form of closure for the 2020 cycle, despite Trump’s continued denial. They hope he will never admit that he lost the race, a fact he predicted at a rally in Georgia on Monday: “No, no, I don’t agree.”
Trump is unlikely to attend Biden’s inauguration, and he discussed holding a campaign-style rally, as NBC News previously reported. Trump also considered announcing a 2024 presidential candidacy on or before January 20, but some of his allies are pressing him not to officially announce his candidacy until after 2022.
There is no infrastructure to formally launch a 2024 campaign in the coming weeks, as was discussed immediately after the November election. Some allies hope that Trump will spend the next two years discussing the possibility of another offer by the White House before making a final decision.
In any case, said the senior government official, “the president will not leave.”
Some of Trump’s allies question whether he will actually mount a 2024 candidacy and see his discussions about it as more focused on staying relevant. They also question whether Trump would have the “emotional discipline”, as one put it, to give the spotlight entirely to Biden on January 20.
White House officials said they view Congressional proceedings on Wednesday as a “struggle for the process” and for the “integrity” of the electoral system. And they point out that Trump firmly believes that the November 3 election was unconstitutional, although he has failed to prove it, despite two months of allegations that even some of his closest allies dispute.
“It will be a few big days, but this will literally be your last breath,” Trump’s ally said of Wednesday’s proceedings, which could drag on Thursday. “There is nothing he can hold on to after that.”
