Donald Trump reportedly had a shocking and ridiculous message for his White House aides in 2020, as written in a new book. According to Maggie Haberman, author of upcoming book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, the twice-impeached former president allegedly told his staff, “We’re never leaving,” despite infamously losing the electoral and popular votes in the 2020 presidential election.
Exclusive: “I’m just not going to leave.” Trump repeatedly insisted he wouldn’t leave the White House after his election loss, a new book by NYT reporter Maggie Haberman reveals. https://t.co/zLQUW9ezG3
— CNN (@CNN) September 12, 2022
Maggie Haberman reports Trump spent the days following his loss telling aides that he would not be leaving the White House on January 20. https://t.co/qtTgep1aKm
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) September 12, 2022
Haberman’s book comes out on October 4th, and the author is also a known New York Times reporter and CNN contributor. Haberman claims that Trump said, “I’m just not going to leave [the White House],” after he lost, and reportedly told another White House aide, “We’re never leaving,” CNN reports. He added, “How can you leave when you won an election?”
CNN reports that Haberman highlights these exchanges and more in the upcoming project, also hints that Trump acknowledged his defeat in private several times, yet relentlessly stressed that he thought the election was “rigged” in public. “We did our best,” Trump admitted to one adviser, per Haberman, also telling junior press aides, “I thought we had it.”
As written by Haberman, Trump's mood and outlook changed drastically over the next few weeks, and shortly after, he asked the Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, "Why should I leave if they stole it from me?" While Trump seemed on-edge and irritable during this time, Haberman writes that those around him felt the same, stressed by his unpredictable and unstable behavior.
She also notes that his son-in-law Jared Kushner told aides to brief the former president about the election, but, as People Magazine reports, said he wouldn't be joining them, comparing this dramatic moment to the end of someone's life. "The priest comes later," Kushner said — himself being the priest in the analogy — according to Haberman. Yikes!
