Topline
Donald Trump told administration officials after the 2020 election he intended to stay in the White House as he touted false claims of election fraud leading up to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots, according to a scoop from New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s forthcoming book on the former president shared with CNN Monday morning.
Donald Trump smiles in the Oval Office in 2018.
Key Facts
Trump told an aide “we’re never leaving” office, according to the report, asking, “How can you leave when you won an election?”
Citing an aide, Haberman reports Trump told Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, “Why should I leave if they stole it from me?”
Though Trump’s refusal to concede the election for two months was unprecedented, this is the first reporting on Trump actually announcing his intentions to remain in the White House following the conclusion of his term on January 20, 2021.
Trump’s refusal came after an apparent change of heart, as he seemed to admit defeat to administration officials in the days after the election, according to Haberman, also a commentator for CNN.
Key Background
Trump first acknowledged Biden would take office January 7, 2021, exactly two months after the Associated Press called the race in Biden’s favor. The admission came a day after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an insurrection that left five dead. Haberman’s book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America comes out October 4 and follows a flurry of books on Trump’s time in office, including a memoir from Trump’s son-in-law and former presidential advisor Jared Kushner released last month.
Tangent
An excerpt from Haberman’s forthcoming book shared with Axios in February alleged aides found presidential papers clogging a White House toilet on several occasions, and believed Trump was the one who flushed the documents. Trump called the report a “fake story…simply made up by a reporter in order to get publicity for a mostly fictitious book.”
Further Reading
Trump Asked Generals To Follow In Third Reich’s Footsteps, Book Says (Forbes)
Trump Denies Clogging White House Toilet With Documents (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/09/12/were-never-leaving-trump-said-hed-refuse-to-leave-office-after-2020-election-book-says/