All the results were not in but the conclusion was decisive, Trump had lost to Biden in a landslide, the Democrats had retaken the Senate and held the House with an increased majority. Everyone was speculating what the POTUS might do. So was Trump, mindful of the fact that he was still the President and Commander in Chief till Wednesday January 21, 2021.
Uppermost in everyone’s mind was whether he would accept the results and what his response might be. He had refused to commit as to whether he would honor the outcome prior to the election, claiming, without any proof, that with all the mail in balloting the election would be rigged. He had claimed in 2016, even when he won the electoral college, without any evidence, that the result had been rigged. His lie being that he had won the majority of the vote because three million illegal immigrants had voted for Hillary. There was little doubt that he would not accept the validity of the process. He would rile up his cult. However as Commander in Chief he could go one further and declare an Emergency so as to call out the military claiming that a coup d’etat was taking place.
Everyone knew what he was thinking at any given moment because his Twitter Feed was the portal to his fevered mind. The stream of consciousness had spattered out like machine gun fire since ten o clock of the night of November the Fourth. He certainly wasn’t going to take a deep breath and resignedly instruct all his departments to prepare working papers so as to create a smooth transition because they had done very little and every department had been denuded of personnel. Nor was he about to prepare a concession tweet.
It soon became obvious that there was no grand plan to put into place for this very likely outcome of the election. But then he never ever planned very far ahead. All he did was react to what happened and then respond through the lens of his distorted view of reality.
In the background Fox News’s Hannity, Tucker and Laura were arguing with Chris Wallace and Judge Napolitano, their legal analyst, about the legitimacy of the election. The latter two hanging onto their conviction that Trump had no legal grounds to challenge anything. Another TV set had a semicircle of wise CNN commentators, socially distanced apart, commenting on the results. However they were far more focussed on what Trump’s grand gesture might be.
The conversation was always about Trump regardless of what happened. He was the news and, if he had any say in the matter, he would always be the news. Biden, who was after all the President elect, had issued a statement thanking his supporters while reassuring all that he would be the leader of all Americans. Whatever his original statement was it was chopped into a thirty second banal segment - less than the time that was alloted to Trump’s tweets about sleepy, corrupt Joe who had been assisted by the dark state, China and Iran in his campaign. Biden, who with the Clintons and Obama should be behind bars was the steady diet he was feeding the faithful.
Trump even more unhinged than ever was veering between the paranoid victim and the accuser screamed at the tiny circle around him. There was Ivanka and Jared, Attorney General Barr, Jay Sekolowski his impeachment lawyer, Mark Meadows his Chief of Staff, his campaign manager Bill Stepien and good old Mike Pence. Melania had gone to bed long ago.
For the moment his attention was more focussed on his cell phones. In-between tweeting how much the election had been rigged he was fielding calls from Roger Stone and Rudi Giuliani who had loads of advice about declaring emergencies and bringing out the military. All this while he was trying to get hold of Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham both from deep Southern States whose Senate races were too close to call at the moment. He was ignoring attempts by Paul Manafort’s lawyer who wanted him to issue a pardon now. Manafort had been arguing for months now that he had more to hide than Roger Stone. Jerry Falwell Jnr who had solidified Evangelical support for him wanted him to know that he was in his prayers and to reassure him that the Lord would not desert him. For the tenth time in an hour he contacted the Chairperson of Republican Party, Ronna McDaniel, to learn whether the hundreds of lawyers that had been sent out to monitor the voting had reported any voter fraud, Also the “second amendment people” were waiting for the word….
Trump carried on cussing about the Chinese conspiracy. They through the Corona virus and other mechanisms had plotted to unseat him. He blurted out that his Intelligence Agencies were quick to report on the supposed Russian aid to him but now they were colluding with the Chinese to elect Biden. He glared at Barr who had not indicted Biden and Obama before the election. Barr like everyone else even in that small circle knew that his favor with the President extended as far back as “what have you done for me lately”. He snapped at Barr surely you can get a Special Counsel to investigate “Sleepy Joe”.
Then there was that sanctimonious Fauci who he had just not simply got rid off. Mark Meadows who had advised him against that course could sense that was what the POTUS was cogitating about now. Trump regarded alarmist Fauci with the same disdain that he had afforded to the microorganism Coronavirus that had sealed his fate. Fauci had accentuated his ignorance, arrogance, incompetence, narcissism and blatant lack of empathy to the millions who had been afflicted medically and economically and the hundreds of thousands who had succumbed.
Trump turned to Stepien who had provided him with internal polling that had given him a chance. The latter was the Campaign Chairman’s fearful interpretation. If Trump had actually looked at the numbers he would have questioned Stepien as to why he still was putting him within striking distance of gaining an electoral college majority. He need have gone no further than to circle the yawning gap between him and Biden in Florida to realize that was all “Sleepy Joe” needed to put him over the top.
Whichever way Trump cut it he was going to lose. The question was what he was going to do about the elephant in the room at the WhiteHouse and the subject for discussion on the airwaves. Trump rather than immediately face the reality that he was a loser found it easier to lapse into paranoia, conspiracy theories and to apportion blame. Trump bemoaned his fate that everyone had sold him down the river from the Generals to Sessions to the civil servants in the dark state. Everyone had turned against him even Republican Governors who had all to a lesser or greater extent not opened their states from Day One and just accepted that people were going to die. Then the GOP candidates deserted him only a few asking for his support. In all the races that mattered. They had either scapegoated or ignored him. He then mused as if he just had an epiphany - Brad Pascale he had lied to him about Tulsa. Made a fool out of him. Maybe he was the leaker all the while. He did the right thing about firing him and everyone else.
While he wallowed in self pity intermittently tweeting his plight, the country held its breath as to whether he would create a constitutional crisis. Would he rally the right wing “Second Amendment People” to go into the streets. Would he call out the military? If he did the latter would he do so as Commander in Chief bypassing the Secretary of Defense. For the moment he just kept up the tension replying to media queries that he was weighing all his options in the knowledge that Biden had rigged the election with mail in ballots.
AG Barr had stood silently by as all the other sycophants, particularly Pence, Jared and Ivanka, in the room agreed with the deranged POTUS. Consiglieri Barr was more than mindful of the legal options and had already been at the receiving end of Trump’s bile for not criminally charging Biden and Obama. As his niece had titled her book “Too Much - And Never Enough”, there was never enough that one could do for the POTUS. He had delivered big time. If it wasn’t for him Trump would have been impeached with the Mueller Report. What was ringing in his ears was his glib reply to a journalist who had asked him whether he was bothered how history may view him. “History” he had countered, was written, “by the winners”. He was definitely on the loosing team at the moment. He was jolted out of his introspection by Trump’s aggressive query as to why they couldn’t go to the Supreme Court to have the election declared null and void with all the mail fraud that had occurred. Barr the ultimate toadie responded that the reports from the lawyers were not in yet.
Stone was on the line again stating that he could rally thousands of the “second amendment people’ if Trump just gave the word. Stone wondered whether he had called out the troops yet. That would be the last call he would accept from his ally. He wasn’t gong to be pressured by Roger. He hadn’t thought all that through. He knew that the Secretary of Defense would never go along with calling out the troops. He should have fired him too.
Stone’s request was leaked - probably by Stone - and the pundits on all the stations were having a field day discussing the biggest crisis America had faced since the Civil War. Biden reiterated what he had maintained throughout the campaign that Trump would be escorted out of the WhiteHouse should he not want to leave.
Stone, his calls being rebuffed, began communicating with the POTUS through the media. He broadcast that hundreds of thousands of Americans were willing to follow Trump and restore law and order in America by revoking what he Trump had called a rigged election. This created chaos in the media rooms. Defense Secretary Esper claimed he had no instructions to bring out the military nor did he envision that any were forthcoming - shades of Watergate.
The pressure was now building on Trump. He turned to the lawyers in the room. Jay Sekolow his personal counsel answered that what Stone was suggesting was treasonous. Trump could well face legal jeopardy if an antagonistic Attorney General emerged after the election if he supported protestors with guns in the street. Biden had said that he would not pardon him as it was.
Trump was no hero. He had gone into the bunker when protestors were at the WhiteHouse fence. He would have to join the revolutionaries perhaps wrapped in the Confederate flag. Nor did he have the managerial skills to put together a revolution. He was a coward. Perhaps his Vietnam deferment was still valid. What he would do was just carry on screaming about the election fraud.
He would hang in till inauguration day when he would issue a pardon to himself and clear off to Mar a Lago. The legitimacy of that move would be fought over for years. His problems would only then be with the New York State Attorney but he could drag that on forever. Meanwhile he would start a new hotel chain for the lower income voters that had formed part of his base. Build massive new churches for the Evangelicals and go and preach there every so now and then. He would start a TV Station....
He would blame the virus, the fraud, the deep state for stealing the election. Then he would get back at all those like Mary who turned against her family for money. He would carry on his real estate business with the Russians….
He looked at the photograph on his desk of his father smiling at him. How he missed him. He yearned for the return of the family consiglieri Roy Cohn. They were the people who made America Great. Maybe he would even stand again in 2024…..
AT THE END OF THE DAY
This blog may seem chaotic but that was only because Jay H. Ell was trying to get into Trump’s mind.
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