The Final Days of Trump's Presidency: "He Will Never Accept Defeat"
As attempts to challenge the election result fail in court, an eerie silence has also gripped the White House.
The jacket with the White House emblem worn by Brian Morgenstern, Donald Trump's deputy communications director, was completely closed, as if he were leaving his office in the west wing. The room, a few doors from the Oval Office, was dark, with the curtains drawn.
Their boss, the president of the United States, was in another part of the White House, speaking on the phone with Rudy Giuliani, the head of his legal efforts to contest the election, and a group of state legislators gathered for the "hearing" - his own words - in a hotel in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
"This election was rigged and we cannot allow that to happen," the president said by phone.
Morgenstern was monitoring the event on his computer screen, absentmindedly.
Soon after, he turned in his chair and talked to a visitor about college, real estate, baseball, and, almost as an afterthought, the president's accomplishments.
Trump's effort to challenge the election results in Pennsylvania failed that Friday, shortly after the aforementioned "hearing," a victim of his weak legal foundations.
An appeals court judge said there was "no basis" for the challenge and the certification of the ballots confirmed that Joe Biden had prevailed in the state, by more than 80,000 votes.
The votes in Arizona, meanwhile, were certified Monday, and the same could happen soon in Wisconsin, with both states giving Biden the victory.
And government officials have already begun work on the transition to a new administration, with the new president set to take office on January 20.
Trump continues to claim victory. Yet behind the scenes, the White House staff see things as they are.
They know their days in the west wing are numbered. They also know that when his boss is losing, it is best to stay away from him.
Morgenstern assures that everything remains the same as always: "We are optimistic. We are still working hard," he says.
Yet this Friday he was the only one in the maze of offices in the west wing. He held a cloth mask in his hands and fiddled with his threads like beads to calm his nerves. The only sound was the hum of a television in another room.
Usually those offices are full of people - assistants who work all hours. But not now.
Deny failure
Jack O'Donnell, who once ran a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, for Trump, says he understands why people who work for the president would leave at a time like this.
"You're walking on eggshells. Nobody wants to say the wrong thing," he explains.
Once, O'Donnell recalls, Trump was walking through a low-ceilinged room in a building that was in the middle of a renovation.
"There were some problems," O'Donnell says. And the mistakes in the renovation were soon noticed by Trump.
"He jumped into the air and hit the ceiling," O'Donnell says. "Nobody wants to be around him when he's angry."
The president's fury, as well as his ambition and drive, are legendary.
And in part he has succeeded by embracing positive aphorisms and denying failure, a leadership style that was established early in his career and has been accentuated lately.
Last week, for example, Trump appeared in the West Wing meeting room to brag about the stock market, as the Dow Jones had closed above 30,000, a record.
The president, Morgenstern says, was "celebrating the market's success which was certainly due in part to his policies," such as "improving trade agreements" and "energy independence."
Investors said the shares rose because a transition to a Biden administration had been officially announced.
But for Trump, victory belonged to him.
Deny reality
Trump's declarations of victory and his refusal to admit defeat have no impact on the outcome: Biden's transition to the White House is underway.
Yet the president's stance matters - millions of people admire him. They will follow him once he leaves the White House, whether he is running for office again, as many hope, or building a media empire.
The day Trump spoke to lawmakers in Gettysburg, his supporters gathered outside the hotel with signs: "Stop Voter Fraud."
In the book "Trump: The World's Greatest Show: The Deals, The Downfall, And The Reinvention," people who know him say that he viewed former President Jimmy Carter, defeated in 1980 after just one term, as a warning.
"You can take a nosedive as fast as you've climbed up," he said, according to the book's sources, adding that Carter faded into obscurity after leaving the White House and became as anonymous as "a peddler."
To avoid failure, Trump denies reality, those who know him say.
As a businessman, he filed his multiple bankruptcies as if he were part of a plan. "He said, 'I did it on purpose,'" recalls Jack O'Donnell, who worked for him. "It's silly," he adds.
"In his head, he will not have lost," O'Donnell says of the election. "He will never accept defeat. It will always be: 'It was stolen from me.'
Trump is now fighting for Republican control of the Senate and plans to go to Georgia on Saturday to support the candidates in the runoff elections.
Meanwhile, in front of Morgenstern's office, one of the empty desks is decorated with a coaster that reads "Failure is not an option."
The slogan sums up Trump's philosophy and his approach to the presidency, at least until he leaves.
