Frustrated at the loss of his Twitter account and forced to accept that he should soon leave office, President Trump actually stopped his job, delegating daily responsibilities to Vice President Mike Pence, while working with a shrinking group sympathies help and consider being additional presidential president. pardon.
Trump was considering leaving the White House before his last day in office Wednesday, even all weekend, but he preferred to leave on the morning of President Joe Biden’s election day, according to two people familiar with discussions who warned, with Trump, plans are always subject to change.
The ever-centered president is interested in the idea of bringing Biden to the boards, has requested a big send-off. According to a person familiar with the planning, it starts with a crowd of cheering, flag-waving staff and supporters to say goodbye to him on the South Lawn of the White House, and continues to a more formal ceremony at Joint Base Andrews , with a red carpet, military band, color guard and 21-gun salute. He will make his last Air Force One flight to Florida to live in Mar-a-Lago, his West Palm Beach, Florida estate.
While Trump is still unwilling to formally concede to Biden, or to participate in the traditional display of the peaceful transfer of power by the imposition of his successor, Pence on Thursday called Vice President Kamala Harris and “offered her congratulations and help before the inauguration,” according to a person familiar with the call.
Pence, who has just broken off his relationship with Trump because he refused to reject the president’s efforts to defy the Constitution and block the election results, confirmed earlier this week that he intends to attend Biden’s inauguration. living. Trump made it clear in one of his last tweets last week that he was not going.
Previously, Trump avoided the idea of leaving the city early to avoid having to house Biden in the White House before the inauguration ceremonies at the Capitol, as has long been traditional – to give the former photo of the retiring and incoming presidents which gives visual definition to America’s peaceful transfer of power. Although he can now stay until the inauguration day, Trump still has no plans to meet with the president-elect.
His administration did expand one traditional courtesy this week, inviting Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, to stay on the eve of the inauguration in Blair House, just across from the Pennsylvania House of the White House.
Finally forced by the dual furore after the uprising at the Capitol last week to acknowledge the ‘new government’ – if not his defeat – Trump almost completely withdrew from the duties of the job he fought so hard to retain . Aid workers and friends who spoke to him this week described him as ‘furious’ over Twitter to remove his account, but also said lawyers had warned him of his possible legal responsibility for inciting the deadly riot last week.
Ever since the moment the tampered Trump mob burst through the Capitol doors and entered the House and Senate chambers to stop Congress from counting the votes, Pence has effectively taken over the responsibilities of the presidency. While Trump is enchanted by live television coverage of his supporters fighting for him, it falls to Pence – who had the county president, and had to be chased away – to authorize the deployment of the National Guard in Columbia District to suppress the mob.
Only a week later, the president was watching television again – with country musician Toby Keith, to whom he had given a medal – when the House voted to accuse him of inciting an uprising, making him the only president made what was charged twice. He was confident that the Senate would not convict him again, according to one person who spoke to him regularly, and focused mostly on the ten Republicans of the House who voted in favor of the accusation, and tributes with questions about who some of the legislators were. was and what he could do to take revenge.
Trump on Thursday spent time with their assistants to ward off reports of his frustration with Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the few outside attorneys still willing to defend him. That afternoon, as Trump took farewell photos with staff while loading other boxes into moving pickups and cars just outside the West Wing, Pence visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters for an information session on safety preparations for the inauguration ceremony.
After the meeting, Pence told reporters that the government “will ensure that we have a safe inauguration, that the elected president Joe Biden and the elected vice president Kamala Harris are sworn in … in a manner consistent with our history and traditions. “
On the way home, Pence stops to greet some of the 20,000 national guards posted outside the Capitol and thanks them for their service in ensuring the inauguration ceremonies are safe.
By Friday, Trump had not yet addressed the country over reports from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies that domestic terrorists, encouraged by the transgression of the Capitol that left at least five dead, threatened not only the inauguration, but also all 50 capitals.
My pillow chief executive, Mike Lindell, one of Trump’s strongest defenders, arguing that fraud cost the presidential re-election was spotted in an otherwise quiet White House. When Lindell left the West Wing, a photographer took a photo showing that the notes he was holding referred to ‘martial law’ and the ‘Insurrection Act’.
Pence also plans to deliver a speech on Saturday on the government’s “achievements in foreign policy” at California Naval Air Station Lemoore, and then at the 10th Mountain Division, in Fort Drum, NY, his office announced Wednesday.
Usually, retiring presidents take part in an official farewell ceremony with members of the military. However, Trump does not care. On Thursday, the White House emailed a brief statement to Trump from reporters that could be a final, 67-word statement. Above all, it was a salute to himself.
“The US military in Afghanistan is at a 19-year low. “Similarly, Iraq and Syria are at their lowest point in many years,” he said. ‘I will always commit to stopping the endless wars. It was a great honor to rebuild our army and support our brave men and women in uniform. $ 2.5 billion invested, including beautiful new equipment – all manufactured in the USA “
While spending his last days almost completely out of sight, he is said to be preparing a number of pardons and weighing whether he will give one to himself. A self-forgiveness would be an act of untested and questionable constitutionality, and one – at a time when he and his family business are being investigated – indicates indifference to the law in an attempt to vaccinate himself from federal prosecution.
Those who have been in contact with the president are reluctant to predict whether he will go through with the shameless move. His calculations must now be weighed against the unresolved case of his accusation in the Senate; a conviction could prevent him from ever seeking office again.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Made it clear in a statement Wednesday that he was open to voting in favor of Trump’s conviction, a move that, according to government officials, intended to ward off the president from self-pardon or any other. damaging moves in his last days.
“He knows self-forgiveness is charged, will investigate and does not protect him from state action,” a former senior administration official said of Trump. But the calculation, according to the official, was more about ‘whether it’s finally worth investigating’ and a decisive endgame.