Donald Trump spent Thanksgiving at the golf course, and then he did maybe ten minutes of “work” when he called representatives of the armed forces for the holiday, then he took a few questions from reporters in the room. This was the first time he’s “taken questions” since Election Day. In his handful of public appearances since Election Day, he’s only issued statements and waddled out of the room. So, of course the reporters there asked him if he would leave the White House willingly. His answer was very strange.
Donald Trump has said that he will leave the White House when the electoral college votes for Democratic president-elect Joe Biden in the closest the outgoing president has come to conceding defeat. Biden won the presidential election with 306 electoral college votes – many more than the 270 required – to Trump’s 232. Biden also leads Trump by more than 6 million in the popular vote tally.
Trump has so far defied tradition by refusing to concede defeat, instead making a series of baseless claims about alleged ballot fraud and launching legal attempts to challenge the outcomes in several states such Pennsylvania and Michigan. But desperate efforts by Trump and his aides to overturn results in key states, either by lawsuits or by pressuring state legislators, have failed.
Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump said if Biden – who is due to be sworn in on 20 January – was certified the election winner by the electoral college, he would depart the White House. Trump said: “Certainly I will. And you know that,” adding that: “If they do, they’ve made a mistake.” However, Trump said it would be “a very hard thing to concede” and declined to say whether he would attend Biden’s inauguration, which is due to take place on 20 January.
It was the first time he had taken questions from reporters since election day, and at times he turned combative, calling one reporter a “lightweight” and telling him “don’t talk to me like that”.
Trump’s administration has already given the green light for a formal transition to get underway. But Trump took issue with Biden moving forward. “I think it’s not right that he’s trying to pick a Cabinet,” Trump said, even though officials from both teams are already working together to get Biden’s team up to speed.
At one point he urged reporters not to allow Biden the credit for pending coronavirus vaccines. “Don’t let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me and I pushed people harder than they’ve ever been pushed before,” he said. As for whether or not he plans to formally declare his candidacy to run again in 2024 – as he has discussed with aides – Trump he didn’t “want to talk about 2024 yet.”
I’m including a video of the exchange below. I think it’s interesting that reporters made it sound like Trump will have a f–king choice in whether or not he leaves the White House. Regardless of whatever con he’s pulling on his Nazi supporters, Donald Trump will be leaving the White House come January. Even if he never concedes, even if he never admits defeat. If he’s still trying to pull this sh-t on January 20th, he’ll be forcibly dragged from the White House.
Also, if you have to stomp your feet and whine about how you’re the POTUS, you really don’t have any power.
Last things:
#DiaperDon pic.twitter.com/rhj6u6UdtL
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) November 27, 2020
Somewhere there’s a piano missing its bench and a village missing its idiot pic.twitter.com/uCxC9p9PRY
— Apparent Steve (@Steverocks35) November 27, 2020
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
#DiaperDon crying again
Showing why over 80 million people voted to fire the Orange Menace. Secret Service will have to drag him out of the White House.
The #DiaperDon trending hit a nerve. He started whining that Twitter makes up trends.
So yep, all the rumors about his soiling himself and diapers is obviously true.
I love that hash tag – the photos people are posting are just hilarious. The twitter trolling is only going to get worse the close to the 20th Jan 2021 we get – afterwards it will be open season on his depends.
Read some news reports on this & then scrolled through some #diaperdon tweets. What a bizarre but fun Day after Thanksgiving! That tiny desk! How’d he manage to fit? Why did he even sit at it, if he’s so protective of his image and such a ‘great’ showman?
Where’s the Resolute Desk?
Did he steal it?
It’s a bill-signing desk. It’s been seen in photos before with other Presidents like Obama, but always with a crowd of people around the Prez. I guess it’s small to let more folks in the photo.
Odd that he chose it for a picture of him by himself. Maybe it was just the only desk in the room and he wanted to be behind a desk for some reason. It really does look like a desk in a kid’s playhouse… Well, that’s rather apt.
He knows come Jan 20th he’ll be dragged out of there, his feet might touch the ground but doubt it….
Whomever is trolling him with that “desk” set up deserves a post in the Biden administration
Personally, I think WH staff is trolling him now. Can you imagine having to take care of this toddler’s daily needs? January 20th can’t get here soon enough.
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the desk, lol. I thought it was photoshopped to make him look extra ridiculous.
Good recap as always from Kaiser. I will add that when he finally bothered to call the troops, it was after 1:00am their time.
My thoughts exactly Esmom. I too thought that photo of him sitting in that huge room, behind that tiny little desk with the huge Seal stuck on the front had to be a gag, but it’s real. Maybe it’s his version of a clown getting out of a tiny car, but it is hysterical. As a classic malignant narcissist Trump will NEVER allow himself to admit he lost. A true narcissist cannot admit they have lost at anything even when it causes them or someone they love harm. The sad thing is his sick ranting is believed by too many and he is doing real harm to our democratic process. In addition, he is continuing to ramp up something truly ugly in some people’s psyche.
I strongly believe he’ll slink away in the dark the night before the inauguration. Agents pulling him out would be fun to watch though.
Vanna- the rate at which he’s melting down, I don’t think he’s going to last that long.
Burn that green carpet on Day 1 to get rid of the Covid and Cheeto dust.
NO, the vaccines are not Trump. They are the result of the dedication of a lot of scientists working overtime in a number of different countries.
I will bet my last dollar that he’s trying to get the Trump name stamped on at least ONE of the vaccines – he is THAT narcissistic and desperate to have something to wave around as a ‘success’ regarding the pandemic.
I won’t get a vaccine if the trump name is on it. I’ll wear a mask forever, if that’s what it takes.
luckily, drug branding nomenclature wouldn’t allow for it to be named after him. Sadly, all his chest beating and the bloviation of the Trumpublicans about his (totally non existent) role in vaccine development & lies about when it will be delivered has served to totally undermine confidence in the science & the data. I can’t tell you how many normal, science & vaccine supporting, people I’ve noted saying they will not get the vaccine when it is more widely available claiming approvals are rigged (this would be emergency use authorization – not full BLA approval, the BLA will be submitted later when all the trial data is collected & analyzed), saying the sample size is too small (I can guarantee you that I have never had 40K+ study subjects worth of data when I’ve submitted any of my drugs for approval by a regulatory agency), etc.
The first vaccine to get attention after very promising trials is the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine.
Pfizer is a big pharmaceutical company that is mainly providing the expertise in handling large clinical trials and marketing.
BioNTech is a small German research company whose founders include two German citizens (a married couple, both scientists) with Turkish immigrant roots who are the developers of the vaccine. That’s why the official name of the vaccine begins with the letters BNT. And to make it even more delightful from the “ha ha, Trump” point of view: both the developers are Muslim in addition to their immigrant connections. The husband emigrated directly from Turkey, I think the wife’s parents are immigrants. The guy received an Iranian science and technology award within the past few years for Muslim researchers.
Pfizer had to issue a statement verifying that their vaccine is NOT part of Warp Speed and its development was not funded by the US government after Pence and then Trump tried to claim credit for it.
Small research companies like this are often involved in innovative drug development. They received funding on another project from the Gates Foundation. Darn. Too bad it wasn’t a research grant from the Soros people. That might make Trumpian heads explode.
And what’s going on with that hair of his? He appears to have dropped the white/grey color he was going for only a few days ago. So much for that elder statesman look.
He is not going to leave willingly. And I do hope his removal is televised.
The way this has been covered, I thought he meant he would leave the White House the minute the Electoral College cast their votes for Joe Biden, i.e. in protest, essentially ditching his presidential duties a month early in a fit of pique.
He hasn’t done the job for a single minute so no difference there.
@jane, there are many way too many cronie criminals to pardon for him to leave now. The Tiger King isn’t going to pardon himself.
He played Golf on Thanksgiving and there’s hilarious footage of him hitting his ball into the water and cursing about it (f-word) like a baby. For that, he delayed calling the troops to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving.
The fact that he choose to answer questions for the first time in weeks, sitting at what looks like a child’s desk, in an empty room with an undecorated Christmas tree, is both bizarre and hilarious. The man is completely unhinged and at this point, it appears he’s being trolled by some of the people who work for him.
chose, not choose
Tiny desk for tiny hands. Lol.
I doubt he will ever concede because it’s not in his personality to lose. Besides it doesn’t matter, conceding is a casual nicety that adult presidents do, which he is not.
So true LOL! That desk is way too small for him in every a way, until you look at his hands, and they somehow fit the size of the desk perfectly.
The barren Christmas tree was everything.
You don’t expect Melania to decorate that tree, too, do you? To the accompaniment of stamping stiletto heels.
F*ck Christmas
I think he is working to get get electoral votes changed to him. This man has gotten away with everything, so I don’t trust him for a moment. And, I don’t trust the GOP senators or the Supreme Court. If he can steal it, he will.
Marigold, I am on the same page as you in this orwellian novel nightmare. I dont think Donny is done wreaking the most insane havoc yet.
Election Superlawyer Bob Bauer is heading the legal issues for Biden. I have to visit Marc Elias’ twitter daily to reassure myself. Elias is the head of the litigation team for Biden and they have been working tirelessly since at least September, he is sharing the ongoing work for the rest of us to see, 7 days a week.
Trump absolutely is working/has attempted to get MI and PA Republican legislatures to void the vote and select Electors themselves and said Electors would vote for Trump and voila he wins. The problem is the courts are not setting up the argument needed for such a step to be considered. If the courts say there is no fraud the rest of the plan falls apart.
The 3rd Circuit ruled on the case from PA and the Opinion was scathing—sort of a this is stupid/specious stop wasting everyone’s time. The Opinion was written by an ultra conservative Trump appointee. It was awesome.
Bottom line: Initially I was worried but I’m feeling more confident as time goes on.
Thanks @Sparky and @Truthiness This info is much appreciated and helps to ease my worry.
I know it gets clicks, but stop asking this manchild if he’s going to concede and leave the WH. Come noon on Jan 20th, he’s gone. Doesn’t matter what he says or doesn’t say, they are going to drag the former president out the door, into a limo and onto AF1 one final time.
Why are they asking him if he’ll leave? It isn’t up to him. He was voted out of office and has lost every lawsuit he’s put forward but one, that was basically of no consequence. Why are they playing along with his delusion that he can somehow stay when he not only lost the electoral college, but the popular vote by 6 million votes and counting? FFS.
Too true. And almost scarier than Trump are the enablers, the silent majority, and the vocal morons who drank his kool-aid. Trump thrives on chaos, disharmony, and lawsuits….. but we need to do away with ….will you leave the White House questions.!!! Trump lost the election. PERIOD! He will be leaving as has every surviving president when their time in office was up.
Bet he didn’t notice there are dark-skinned people in that painting/mural to his left. Dressed quite nicely, too. The fellow is doffing his hat to one of the women–something trump has never done in his entire life, show deference to a woman.
I bristle every time Trump gets close to the Zubar wallpaper that Jackie Kennedy brought to the Diplomacy Room. I bet he sees that room only as a status symbol and it becomes just a prop in his reality show mind.
Oh, is that what it is? Thanks! Yeah, totally wasted on this nutjob.
My theory is he misses seeing his name in the news, and his usual outlets (twitter, Fox) no longer give him the reach they once did. He just wants to be talked about, it’s the only way he knows to measure value – attention. Sad. Let’s keep ignoring and unfollowing, guys.
Why is this being discussed? Of course he’ll clear out. Be gone. You abused the office.
Him sitting at the kids’ table for Thanksgiving is perfect.
I heard he’d need something like 36 faithless electors to vote for him instead of Biden. That’s just not going to happen. These people fail upwards, and somehow get away with so much sh*t, but I think it’s okay to breathe a bit. I was worried about states not certifying for Biden. Now that done, it’s just a sideshow until then.
Also, I really actually hope the Secret Service (or Sergeant of Arms?) has to drag him out of the white house. I want to seeeeeeeeeee it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he is trying to bribe the electors into choosing him, which would cause mass mayhem. I really wish there was a way to get rid of the electoral college and let the people speak for themselves. Ivanka and Jared seem to be laying low. Probably consulting with attorneys, about any charges they will face. They all need to pay for what they have done to this country. I appreciate VP Biden so much for getting him out of our White House. It’s going to have to be fumigated and and the gold tackiness removed. I don’t know why Tweeter won’t cancel his account. He’s addicted to it, and uses it to stir up the hate-mongering people, who worship him. I’m ashamed that he got as many votes as he did. Since Jill Biden is a dedicated teacher, so I hope that there will be increased funding allocated to the public school system. We really have become a dumbed down country. It’s sad and frustrating as hell.
I’d like to thank whoever set up that ridiculous desk. I’m sure at the last minute, Trump said he wanted a desk with a huge presidential seal on it and that’s what they found. Love it.