Donald Trump continued on election night 2020 and continued his last days in office, unraveling America with him and dragging him to the point where his followers fired the American Capitol with two more weeks in his term. This Axios series takes you inside the collapse of a president.
Episode 1: Trump’s refusal to believe that the election results were planned in advance. He heard about the “red mirror” – the likelihood that early votes would drop more Republicans than the final score – and he decided to take advantage of it.
‘Jared, you name the Murdochs! Jason, you call Sammon and Hemmer! ‘
President Trump almost shouted. He led his son-in-law and his senior strategist late on election night from his private residence in the White House. He kicked out the names of the top executives of Fox News and the talent he expected to answer him.
“And anyone else – anyone else who will take the call,” he said. ‘Tell these guys they need to change it, they misunderstood it. It’s way too early. Not even CNN mentions it. ‘
As the clock ticks in the first minutes of Nov. 4, Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani risked the campaign’s best assistants: ‘There’s no way he lost; this thing had to be stolen. Just saying we won Michigan! Just say we won Georgia! Just say we won the election! He must go out and achieve the victory. ‘Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, later told associates: “It was fucking crazy.”
For weeks, Trump lays the foundation declare victory on election night – even if he lost. But the results in real time, underlined by Fox’s shocking call, heightened his plans and began his unraveling.
Trump planned for Americans to go to bed on November 3 to celebrate his re-election – or resign. The cards they saw on TV should be bathed in red. But at 11:20 p.m., the vision falls apart as the country’s leading news channel among conservatives becomes the first place to call Arizona Joe Biden. Inside the White House, Trump’s inner circle erupted in horror.
Over the next two months, Trump took the country with him as he descended into denial, despair, and a reckless revenge series that fueled a deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters who wanted to reverse the election. This resulted in a constitutional crisis and a two-pronged pressure to execute Trump on his way to the door, to try to drive him out of American politics forever.
But within four years, Trump rebuilt the Republican Party in his own image, inspiring and activating tens of millions of Americans who would not soon leave him. He once boasted that he could shoot another person in Fifth Avenue and not lose his constituents. In fact, many of them acted eagerly to commit violence on his behalf.
As Trump prepared for Election Day, he was focused on the so-called red mirage. It was the idea that the early votes for Republicans would look better than the final counts, because Democrats feared COVID-19 more and would cast excessively absent votes that would take longer to count. Trump intended to use it – to arm it for his large number of followers.
His preparations were deliberate, strategic and deeply cynical. Trump wanted Americans to lie a lie believing that there were two elections – a legitimate election that consisted of personal voting, and a separate, fraudulent election with false consent for Democrats.
In the first hours after the returns closed, it seemed like his plan could work. Trump was on track for easy victories in Florida and Ohio, and held large – though misleading – early tournaments in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
But as Bill Hemmer said a live “what if” scenario on his studio telegraph from Fox F’s giant Manhattan headquarters sounds confused. ‘What’s going on here? Why is Arizona blue? ‘ he asked on camera, while cramming the image of the state on the touchscreen, without reversing its color. “Did we just mention it? Did we call Arizona?” Due to a minor communication interruption, Hemmer’s Arizona screen turned blue before he or the other anchors, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, found out that Fox’s Decision Desk had mentioned it.
Trump was steaming and he immediately wanted to see his top assistants. His son-in-law Jared Kushner, chief of staff Mark Meadows, campaign manager Stepien, senior strategist Jason Miller and data cruncher Matt Oczkowski took the elevator to the third floor of the White House residence. They met Trump and the first lady halfway between his bedroom and the living room at the end of the hall. Trump peppered them with questions. What happened? What the hell is going on at Fox?
Oczkowski told Trump that based on the modeling of the campaign, he thought Fox was wrong and “we’re going to win now” with maybe 10,000 votes or less, “razor close”. But the reality was that hundreds of thousands of votes were outstanding in Maricopa County and that the picture was too cloudy to be sure. Then Trump told Kushner to call the Murdochs.
The team was cautiously optimistic that they see a repeat of Trump’s 2016 victory. In the West Wing, mediocre staff members crowded the corridors with nervous excitement and anticipation. At the residence, about 200 guests – donors, cabinet secretaries, Sean Conley, doctor in the White House, TV amplifiers Diamond and Silk and other VIPs gathered for the official party for election night. They munched on beef chips. Most did not wear masks.
Giuliani was at the table in the middle of the party, with a laptop open, watching the result come in, as if he were Command Central. His son, White House official Andrew Giuliani, was sitting to his right. Trump’s close circle – children Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, plus his longtime adviser Hope Hicks, White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and a few others – gathered separately in the Old Family Dining Room to share the proceeds on TV to see . Trump’s nuclear campaign team monitored results at the map level in the Map Room on the ground floor, the same room where FDR once fought during World War II.
Trump has spent a ridiculous summer and the early autumn railing against ballot papers. After a toxic election debate on September 29 with Biden, Trump’s internal poll numbers plummeted. He started choreographing seriously with election night during the second week of October, when he recovered from COVID-19.
His former chief of staff Reince Priebus told a friend he was stunned when Trump called him around that time and acted in his script, including stepping to a podium and declaring victory on election night ahead of time if he looked like he was submit.
The speech writing team of Stephen White, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, prepared three framed speeches for election night for all the possible scenarios: a clear victory, a clear loss and an indefinite result. But the speechwriters knew that the words would only be if Trump faced something other than a resounding victory. This president will never acknowledge defeat or encourage patience.
The top officials tried to force Fox to withdraw his profession. Kushner called Rupert Murdoch, who said he would see what was going on. Hicks, a former Fox CEO, sends a message to current Fox CEO and ex-White House Raj Shah. Hicks also gave Fox News President Jay Wallace’s phone number to top Trump campaign officials. The senior officials of the Trump campaign aggressively texted the anchors MacCallum and Baier. During the night, a number of Fox commentators who were friendly to Trump – including Tucker Carlson – questioned the call in Arizona. But the call stands.
To make the situation even more uncomfortable, several high-profile Fox News personalities, including ‘Judge’ Jeanine Pirro, were in the White House while their own network spoiled a victory party.
It was shortly after 1 a.m. on Nov. 4 when Trump finally came down from his living room to the main hallway on the second floor of his private residence. His inner circle met him halfway. It was the first time most of them had seen the president that night. About a dozen assistants and family members flocked to Trump as he dictated an impromptu speech. Stephen Miller sits furiously on the bench, typing the president’s stream of consciousness thoughts. Aides rushed to print screenshots of cable news graphics showing Trump’s illusion of early clues in key Midwestern states. By 2 a.m., Trump wanted to know why he could not just say he won and was done with it.
The speechwriters sent a draft to Trump’s longtime telepom operator, who was stationed on his laptop in a small room next to the East Room. The concept does not contain the words that became the most infamous line of his speech: “Honestly, we won this election.”
At 2:20 a.m., maskless assistants and supporters in the East Room held up cell phones to record Trump, the first lady, Vice President Mike Pence and his wife waiting for the cameras while playing ‘Hail to the Chief’. Dozens of American flags carried the background behind them.
Trump declared victory – and announced that the Democrats were committing a huge fraud on the American people.
Both claims were lies.
About this series: Our reporting is based on multiple interviews with current and former White House, officials, government and congressional officials, as well as direct eyewitnesses and people close to the president. Sources were given anonymously to share sensitive observations or details that they might not formally disclose. President Trump and other officials to whom citations and actions have been attributed have been given the opportunity to confirm, deny or respond to reporting elements prior to publication.
“Off the rails” is reported by Jonathan Swan, White House Reporter, with reporting and research assistance by Zach Basu. It was edited by Margaret Talev and Mike Allen. Illustrations by Sarah Grillo, Aïda Amer and Eniola Odetunde. Our podcast on the series is called “How It Happened: Trump’s Last Stand.”