He hasn’t been able to grasp the reality yet:
Trump has been defiant in the face of defeat, repeatedly and baselessly claiming he won the election in a series of all-caps tweets on Saturday after spending a few hours at his golf club in Virginia.
Another aide noted that they were proud that the president had expanded support from 2016, but, ultimately, the results show it wasn’t enough to overcome “how much so many people hate him,” citing the president’s handling of the coronavirus and relentless efforts to discredit mail-in ballots as key issues.
Nonetheless, they are moving forward with their quixotic legal contests, at least for the moment:
Stepien, who took over as campaign manager back in July, tried to make it clear to the surrogates that the call wasn’t a “fundraising solicitation,” but went on to ask for donations, saying it was the first way they could help the president moving forward.
“This is not a fundraising solicitation, I want to be super clear, this is an update call to make sure you know exactly where we are in the campaign … but if anyone wants to contribute to the Legal Defense Fund, you can go to DonaldTrump.com,” Stepien said.
The campaign has been aggressively raising money to fund its ongoing legal efforts, blasting dozens of texts and emails to supporters each day. But according to the fine print on the donations page, 60% of the funds raised will go to paying down the campaign’s debt.
Stepien issued another call to action for surrogates on the call: “Stay at the ready.”
Trump’s campaign manager urged surrogates that they could call on them in the coming days to show up to protests and voice their support for the president.
“At a moment’s instance we may need your help at protests in your state to make sure that the president is represented and our side of the argument is shown,” Stepien said.” At a moment’s notice, we may need your help and support on the ground, you know, waving the flag and yelling the president’s name and support.”
Something like this?