Administration official: It would have been 'un-Trumpian' for election to not have 'some calamity involved'
The White House is in a constant state of chaos, a senior Trump administration official told The Washington Post on Thursday, which is why staffers didn't expect things to be calm after Election Day.
When it comes to President Trump, "one thing people forget, in general, is that for decades, long before the presidency, his whole life was a crisis and he thrived in that environment," the official said. "It'd be boring if he just got blown out or won big. That would be very un-Trumpian for there not to be some calamity involved."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
On Thursday morning, Trump tweeted "STOP THE COUNT," and the Post reports his senior advisers quickly pointed out that if vote counting stopped, Biden would win. Trump tweaked his message, and tweeted a follow up: "STOP THE FRAUD!" (There is no evidence of any widespread voting fraud.)
The senior administration official told the Post that on Wednesday, Trump's aides and allies were still enthusiastic, and felt that Trump could "catch lightning in a bottle again" by holding onto his lead in places like Georgia and flipping Arizona, where Biden is ahead. The mood began shifting on Thursday, and Trump's eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, started tweeting about GOP politicians not doing enough to help their father.
Over the next few weeks, the campaign is expected to pull out all the stops legally, senior campaign officials told the Post, and they are asking supporters to start sending money. "Trumpworld is going to go down swinging," Dan Eberhart, a GOP donor, told the Post. He noted that "the ballgame is not over, but it's fading away from Trump a lot. It could be a fitting end to Trump. He was so litigious for his business career, and he might go down in a torrent of lawsuits."
-
Political cartoons for February 1Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include Tom Homan's offer, the Fox News filter, and more
-
Will SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic make 2026 the year of mega tech listings?In Depth SpaceX float may come as soon as this year, and would be the largest IPO in history
-
Reforming the House of LordsThe Explainer Keir Starmer’s government regards reform of the House of Lords as ‘long overdue and essential’
-
EU and India clinch trade pact amid US tariff warSpeed Read The agreement will slash tariffs on most goods over the next decade
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
Maduro pleads not guilty in first US court hearingSpeed Read Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores pleaded not guilty to cocaine trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracy
