Donald Trump.Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty
Even after losing both the electoral and popular votes in the 2020 presidential election,Donald Trumphad a message for his White House aides, a new book claims: “We’re never leaving.”
That’s according toNew York Timesreporter and CNN contributor Maggie Haberman, who writes that the former president told one aide: “I’m just not going to leave,” after he lost.
“We’re never leaving,” Trump allegedly told another, CNN reports. “How can you leave when you won an election?”
The exchanges are highlighted in Haberman’s forthcoming book,Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, which debuts Oct. 4.
Elsewhere in the book, CNN reports that Haberman highlights exchanges which appear to demonstrate Trump’s private acknowledgement of his defeat, even as the former president has publicly insisted the election was “rigged.”
“We did our best,” Trump told one adviser, per Haberman. “I thought we had it,” he told junior press aides.
Haberman writes that Trump’s mood shifted over the next few weeks, and that he at one point told Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, “Why should I leave if they stole it from me?”
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And as Trump himself appeared agitated about what next moves he might take, those around him shared the sentiment.
Haberman writes that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner encouraged aides to brief the former president about the election, but said he wouldn’t be joining them — comparing the moment to the end of someone’s life.
“The priest comes later,” Kushner said — himself being the priest in the analogy — according to Haberman.
The final weeks and days of the Trump White House have been the subject of much speculation after federal agentsexecuted a search warranton Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in early August, in the search for classified documents.
As the administration prepared for the incoming president,Joe Biden— whom Trump himself was claiming had “stolen” the election — proper storing or handling of government documents, it seems, simply weren’t among the top priorities.
Since leaving the White House in January 2021, thetwice-impeachedformer president’s post-White House life has also been mired in intensifying investigations on various fronts, including into his political conduct and business affairs.
The Mar-a-Lago search — which continues to play out in court — came against the backdrop of another investigation, into Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021,attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The House committee investigating the attack has shared its conclusions — based on countless hours of testimony from a legion of former Trump officials and other evidence — about multiple aspects of efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential through a series oftelevised public hearingsthis summer.
In a court filing in March, a federal judgewrotethat Trump and his attorney John Eastmanenacted a planto overturn the election, which Biden won, and justified that plan with allegations of election fraud.
source: people.com
