Trump is reportedly turning on 'virtually every person around him'

President Trump is reportedly spending some of his last days in office "bitterly" turning on nearly everyone in his orbit to the point that officials are now trying to avoid the West Wing.

As Trump continues his attempts to overturn the election he lost to President-elect Joe Biden, Axios reports that he's "turning bitterly on virtually every person around him" and "griping about anyone who refuses to indulge" his efforts or baseless conspiracy theories.

Among the targets of his ire is evidently Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump has reportedly been complaining isn't "fighting hard enough" for him. Pence's upcoming role presiding over the Senate as the results of the 2020 election are validated, which the president would consider "the ultimate betrayal," has started "to loom large" in Trump's mind, Axios says.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

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.

Sign up

But it's not just Pence, and Axios reports that as Trump lashes out, "everyone is in the blast zone," including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

"Top officials are trying to stay away from the West Wing right now," Axios writes.

Trump, whose baseless allegations that there was widespread voter fraud in the election have been shot down by Attorney General William Barr and others, has "turned to a ragtag group of conspiracy theorists" to help him overturn Biden's win, holding meetings at the Oval Office to discuss "extreme measures" that White House officials noted "would be unconstitutional or otherwise unworkable," The Washington Post previously reported. Amid such efforts, Axios writes that "we cannot stress enough how unnerved Trump officials are by the conversations unfolding inside the White House." Read more at Axios.