After it became clear that he had lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, failed, one-term former president Donald Trump told aides that he would refuse to leave when the time came for him to vacate the White House, which would allow him to remain as head of state.
That revelation comes from an upcoming book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America,” written by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, which is due to hit bookshelves on October 4.
CNN obtained an advance copy of the book and notes:
“I’m just not going to leave,” Trump told one aide, according to Haberman.
“We’re never leaving,” Trump told another. “How can you leave when you won an election?”
Amazingly, Trump’s plan to stay in office developed even after he had accepted that Biden was the legitimate winner and next president:
Haberman writes that in the immediate aftermath of the November 3 elections, Trump seemed to recognize he had lost to Biden. He asked advisers to tell him what had gone wrong. He comforted one adviser, saying, “We did our best.” Trump told junior press aides, “I thought we had it,” seemingly almost embarrassed by the outcome, according to Haberman.
But at some point, Trump’s mood changed, Haberman writes, and he abruptly informed aides he had no intention of departing the White House in late January 2021 for Biden to move in.
At one point, Trump told Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, “Why should I leave if they stole it from me?”
Despite his protestations, conspiracy theories, and endless lies about massive cheating in the election, Trump and his allies never provided a scintilla of evidence to support their allegations.
Trump continues to spread disinformation about the last election and was booted from Twitter in January of 2021 for his lies.
