Trump “mumbled, I won, I won, like ‘Mad King George’ after...

More than 30 senior administration officials, members of its legal team, campaign aides and advisers told the newspaper about its increasingly messy attempts to overturn the election result and how those who remained in the White House have fulfilled it.

Relatives of the president after November 3 were “happy to scratch the itch,” the close adviser said.

“If he thinks he’s won, it’s like, ‘Shhh, we won’t tell him.’ ”

Regarding the ensuing legal strategy, a senior administration told the newspaper that the theory was: “You just have to roll up anyone who’s ready to do it in a clown car, and when it’s time for a press conference, to deploy them. ”

The newspaper confirmed that on election night, Mr. Trump was furious that Fox News was the first network to call Arizona for Joe Biden – a call that ultimately turned out to be correct – and that he ordered to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to call Rupert Murdoch and demand a retraction.

In the days that followed, Mr Trump surrounded himself with people who told him what he wanted to hear, the paper reported, such as campaign pollster John McLaughlin, who informed the president of a poll that ‘he had led after the election which showed Mr. Trump a positive approval rating and a majority in the country that believed the media had been “unfair and biased against him.”

“Trump scrambled to escape reality,” the authors write.

Thanksgiving was first spent in the White House, further isolating it from the real world. He golfed in the morning and spent part of the day calling the councilors to ask if they thought he really lost the election.

“You have to really understand the psychology of Trump,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a longtime Trump associate and former White House communications director, who has now distanced himself from the president.

“The classic symptoms of a stranger are, there must be a conspiracy. These are not my faults, but there is a cabal against me. This is why he is inclined to these conspiracy theories. ”

Perhaps most telling is the number of insiders who have tried to distance themselves from the show.

There was no mention in Le Washington Post story of Mike Pence, the vice-president, nor of his daughter Ivanka.

The Trump campaign had arranged for Deputy Campaign Director Justin Clark, Justin Riemer, the Republican National Committee board and others to make plans for a post-election dispute.

The two men had prepared a series of law firms across the country for possible recounts and contested votes.

The self-proclaimed “elite strike force” team of Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell – since abandoned – were not involved.

“Literally only the bangs of the bangs are willing to make pressers, and that’s when it became clear that there was no ‘there’ there,” a senior official said. administration to the newspaper.

Many other lawyers felt Mr Giuliani appeared “deranged” and unprepared to plead, a source said.

Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Ellis were “performing for an audience of one,” and Mr. Trump held Mr. Giuliani in high regard as a “fighter” and “his peer.”

On November 13, Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Ellis staged what a senior administration official called a “hostile takeover” of what was left of the Trump campaign.

Mr. Trump called Mr. Giuliani from the Oval Office while other advisers were present, including Mr. Pence; White House lawyer Pat Cipollone; Johnny McEntee, the Presidential Personnel Director; and Mr. Clark, the deputy campaign manager who had laid the legal foundation for the challenges.

Mr Giuliani, on the loudspeaker, told the president he could win and his other advisers were lying to him about his chances. Mr. Clark called Mr. Giuliani a “swearing in,” the newspaper reported, saying he was giving the president bad news.

The next day, November 14, Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Giuliani, Ms. Ellis, Ms. Powell and others were now in charge of his legal strategy.

Ms Ellis arrived at the campaign headquarters in Arlington and told employees they should now listen to her and Mr Giuliani, the newspaper reported.

“They came one day and said to themselves, ‘We have the direct order from the president. Do not take an order if it does not come from us “” recalled a senior administration official.

Mr Clark and Jason Miller, an aide to the president, objected and Ms Ellis threatened to call Mr Trump – to which Mr Miller replied: ‘Sure, let’s do this,’ a campaign adviser said. .

In the end, Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Ellis won.

On November 23, the president reluctantly allowed the General Service Administration to approve the release of funds for Biden’s transition team and grant them permission to speak to government officials.

Clearance was granted, however, after Mr. Trump’s aides told him that didn’t mean he had to give up his legal fight or concede.

The president has vowed to keep fighting but, with the voters meeting on December 14 to officially name Mr. Biden president-elect, it is seen as a futile fight.