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The president sounds bravado and exasperation at the end of a dividing campaign, but he would possibly have separated from the political realities of a country in crisis.
By Maggie Haberman, Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin
President Trump arrives Tuesday on Election Day, switching between accepting as true and exasperated, bravado and grievances, and licking frustration at falling behind Joseph R. Biden Jr. , whom he considers an unworthy opponent.
“Dude, it’s going to be embarrassing if I lose to this guy,” Trump’s advisers said, a lament he also publicly conveyed. But in the off-field version, Trump exclaims, “This guy!”in reference to Mr Biden, with a salty adjective separating the words.
Lala, who lagged behind in the top polls, Trump went through a marathon series of demonstrations last week, seeking to demolish Trump Biden and energize his supporters, but also constant in the length of the crowd and perceived enemies such as the media and Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease expert of the federal government , advised on Sunday to retire to resign after the election.
In the turn of the moment, the representative denounced that the rigged voting formula opposed it and threatened to prosecute it after the elections were over, with the apparent aim of undermining a tense electoral procedure by the coronavirus pandemic. It’s not transparent what legal tools Trump thinks he has at his disposal.
The president, according to his associates, was encouraged through his wider audience and through data from the relatively optimistic polls that advisers saved for him, regularly filtering out the darker figures.
During a visit to Florida last week, several attendees told the president that winning the Electoral College was a certainty, a diagnosis that is not based on Republican or Democratic polls, according to others close to the conversation, and Mark Meadows, the White House staff leader. He responded enthusiastically when Meadows. Trump raised the concept of making an overdue offer for strongly Democratic states like New Mexico, an option that other advisers have called absolutely unrealistic.
His crazy career to the end is a distillation of his tumultuous 4 years in power, an addition of resentment, combativeness and inclination to sometimes look through his own prism, and the hope that everything will be fine in the end. He did it four years ago when he surprised himself, his advisers and the world by winning the White House.
But by locking himself in the thin bubble of his own world view, Trump would possibly have separated more from the political realities of a country in crisis and that, in turn, allowed Trump to conduct a crusade without a central message. , a transparent timetable for a period of time and without reaction to the ills of the pandemic.
Most members of the president’s inner circle express optimism about the final results of the contest, even as they struggle with the president’s tiredness and strange moods, have shown conversations with more than a dozen attendees and allies, but some councillors recognize that it would be necessary. Several points to put yourself in place. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss delicate internal deliberations.
Republican lawmakers have presented less positive evidence of their prospects and, privately, some Trump advisers are not making that point. A high-ranking Republican member of Congress told Meadows last month that if Trump “tried to lose the election, he couldn’t “think of anything he would say he does differently,” the lawmaker recalled, noting that the assistant nodded only with gratitude. “They just think they can’t do anything about it. “
But beyond the capital, some Republicans insist that Trump once he returns can defy all expectations and that a compromised base will fuel GOP voters on Election Day.
Joe Gruters, the president of the Florida Republican Party who gave the impression with Trump in Tampa last week described the president as “a padlock” in the state.
“You can take it to the bank and cash the check,” Gruters said, adding of the Democrats: “We’re crushing them on the ground. That’s what will make a difference. “
But the option of defeat and the possible consequences of being expelled from the White House rarely come from Trump.
In times of carelessness, Trump told his advisers for weeks that he hoped to face careful scrutiny from prosecutors if he lost. He is involved not only in ongoing investigations in New York City, but also in the possibility of additional federal investigations, according to others who spoke to him.
While Trump has not expressed these considerations in broad daylight, he has denounced the democratic process, raised unfounded doubts about the integrity of the vote and suggesting tactics to undermine an election to go against him, adding Supreme Court interference.
He also thought of pointing out victory prematurely on Tuesday night, but if there is a plan arranged to do so, his most sensible lieutenants do not tell his allies. A Congressional strata said he had spoken to Jared Kushner, Kushner’s son. Trump on Sunday and that Kushner not only had not asked Capitol Republicans for the idea of such a plan, but also did not mention the prospect at all.
Trump advisers continue to think he has a realistic chance of beating Trump Biden, but admit that a last-minute breakthrough would be needed in one of the Great Lakes states where he is lately falling behind, as well as a brake. the functionality of the line in the south and southwest Some Republicans, however, are already preparing for tight losses or decisions in a number of Sun Belt states, and say they are alarmed by the fact that Trump would possibly have made some of them prematurely blue in the same way that Barack Obama’s landslide in 2008 made Virginia and Colorado democratic.
“Arizona and Georgia are a big deal,” said Nick Everhart, a Republican strata. “It’s a replacement for what other people think would come from, but once they get over it, it’s hard to go back. “
Even Trump advisers admit that if he wins at the Electoral College, he will most likely lose the popular vote, potentially across an even wider margin than in 2016.
The president himself has done little to increase his chances in the last days of the race. On Friday, Trump used a rally in Michigan to provide an unintended theory that doctors classify patient deaths as coronavirus-related to make more money. , prompting a fierce condemnation of medical groups, as well as Biden and Biden. Obama.
And on Saturday in Pennsylvania, on the site where George Washington drew a map of his Delaware crossing the revolution, attendees wrote a sober speech that the president is scheduled to give. Halfway, he seemed bored and began to talk about Mr. Biden.
He used his speeches to deliver long diatribes against Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, although some Trump advisers believe the total theme is a parallel spectacle in the midst of a public fitness disaster, but Trump affiliates say he simply likes to attack the Biden family.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, said the idea that Trump allowed the option to waste interfered with his approach.
“In fact, you might not settle for the argument of someone who is or has lost,” Cramer said.
What confuses some Republicans is how much Trump spoke last month about Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation by the Supreme Court; some G. O. P. senators. have made this a centerpiece of their campaigns.
Campaigning in Kentucky this weekend to continue his seventh term, majority leader Mitch McConnell deceived Judge Barrett and the other two judges triumphed over the superior court without mentioning Trump’s name, Biden, once.
Although Trump has rebuilt parts of his 2016 inner circle in the final days of the race, the operation lacks a character who is willing and able to force the president to stick to a script. Four years ago, Trump thought of how the campaign’s most sensible official, Stephen K. Bannon, as a fellow, able to target the candidate. These days, Trump is furious with the affiliates and assistants he thinks he lacks.
There has been an ephemeral effort to make a new voice heard as recently as three weeks before the election: some Trump advisers have raised the concept of recruiting Karl Rove, George W’s ex-treasurer. , or someone like him.
But throughout the time this concept was discussed, the election was already less than a month away, and advisers were devastated by a primary money crisis, exacerbated by tentative plans for virtual fundraisers that never materialized. partly due to Trump for such events.
Some Republicans seem to be beyond the end of the Trump era, whether it happens Tuesday night or a few years from now.
Several ambitious young Republicans have recently visited the first number one states in Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota. Noem also visited Trump in Mar-a-Lago, which could prevent him in the G. O. P. the number one on the circuit deserves Trump to lose. Another, Senator Rick Scott of Florida, is maneuvering to take over the Senate Republican Senate Senate Committee, an effort that other Republicans noted as a step toward the presidency.
A discrete process is even underway for the presidency of the Republican National Committee, a framework led for four years by Ronna McDaniel, who is highly appreciated on the committee but has never had one of the people closest to the president.
Several Trump loyalies are noted as possible successors in office, adding that Trump Bossie, who is an R. N. C. member of Maryland, as well as Ohio Republican Party President Jane Timken, whom the president truly installed in office. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. , and his girlfriend, conservative and expert Kimberly Guilfoyle, have been discussed as imaginable presidents, though his assistants have said they are not interested in the job.
Gruters said he was unaware of the efforts made through the president’s son to continue N. C. R. ‘s work, and congratulated McDaniel, but said a descendant of Trump could take office if he resigned.
“Ronna has done well and indeed deserves a nod if she makes the decision to continue, ” Mr. Gruters. “Don Jr. would obviously be credible for everything he sought to pursue. He’s got a fake base command, he’s got the ability to raise a lot of cash, and he’d be some other superstar in the game.
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