Trump plans to speak at the Ellips during a “Save America” rally on Wednesday.
As a joint session of Congress convenes Wednesday to formally ratify the votes of the Electoral College, President Donald Trump plans to speak at a “Save America” rally near the White House, according to sources familiar with his plans.
Thousands are expected to attend the rally at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park just south of the White House, as Trump supporters storm the country’s capital for a series of rallies to mark the outcome of the 2020 to protest election.
The rally is the first rally Trump will attend in Washington since he was defeated by President-elect Joe Biden in November. Trump previously rode in his car and flies aboard Marine One to support those who gathered to protest in Washington, DC.
Over the weekend, the president tweeted, “I will be there. Historic day!” reply to a tweet from one of the organizers.
Trump’s plan to attend Wednesday’s rally comes on the heels of audio recordings of a Saturday call he had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the president demands that Raffensperger “find the exact number of votes” “what he needs to be named the winner. Georgia confirmed despite losing three separate counts.
“The people of Georgia are angry. The people of the country are angry, and there is nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you have recalculated,” Trump told Raffensperger. “All I want to do is: I only want to find 11,780 votes, which is more than we have.”
Elected President Joe Biden won the state by 11,779 votes.
Many close advisers to the president were “outside themselves” and unaware of the existence of the call until the story was first published by the Washington Post on Sunday night, sources told ABC News.
According to the sources, Trump is increasingly isolated and describes a man who is only interested in the congressional certification process in Congress on January 6th.
Even loyalists who have so far publicly supported the president’s false allegations that the election was stolen from him have begun to think about jobs in a post-Trump world – but they could not yet discuss with Trump whether they still will not work for him. outside the White House, sources say.
“We are still in the denial phase,” said one Trump ally, who described Trump’s plans between Jan. 6 and Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20 as “unknown.”
Nevertheless, one of the few remaining fully staffed offices in the White House is the White House Counsel’s Office, which continues to exercise the growing list of possible forgiveness the president must grant in his last days in office. The final pardons are expected to come in waves during Trump’s final weeks, and some will only come this week, sources said.
And while Trump may not be discussing it in public, the president still plans to spend his life after the presidency in Florida.
While spending the Christmas holidays at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Trump got excited about renovating his living quarters, according to sources familiar with his mood.
Trump, along with first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron, intended to make the club their full-time home, but due to concerns about the space and threats from local officials, claimed the club could not be used as a full-time residence can not change plans.
Sources say the Trumps started buying a home in the Palm Beach area that would not be on the Mar-a-Lago site.