In public, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly and perniciously insisted that he’ll only lose tomorrow’s election if Democrats somehow steal it from him. Inside his campaign, however, staffers quietly acknowledge that the GOP presidential nominee could lose without any hijinks.
In an internal email obtained by Axios, Trump co-campaign manager Susie Wiles laid out plans for dismantling the campaign apparatus after the election. In the event of a Trump victory, some staff will move to Trump’s transition and inauguration teams, Wiles wrote. But those plans come couched in lots of conditional language: “God willing,” “in the event President Trump and Senator [JD] Vance are elected,” “should we be victorious.”
That sort of hedging would be standard for any other campaign on the eve of a toss-up election—but it’s uncharacteristic for Trump, who generally projects confidence bordering on megalomania. Over the weekend, the former president hyped a Breitbart interview with the right-leaning pollster Mark Mitchell, who predicted a landslide win for Trump, counter to virtually every other reputable poll that shows the race is one of the closest in the history of US politics.
Trump and his allies have also laid the groundwork for a second “Stop the Steal” movement, suggesting without evidence that electoral fraud and mismanagement are endemic across the country. “Do your part to guarantee we win by more than the Margin of Fraud,” reads one get-out-the-vote website sponsored by the Republican National Committee.
Wiles’s email appeared to acknowledge that there is, in fact, a universe where voters choose Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris—and, perhaps more strikingly, a universe where Trump staff accept that and go home. (“Regardless of the outcome of the election,” she wrote, “November 30 will be your last day on payroll.”) During a Saturday interview with ABC News, Trump seemed to allow for that possibility after chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl asked him if he thought there was any way he could lose. “I guess you could lose, can lose. I mean, that happens, right?” Trump said. Despite direct requests to do so, Trump has not publicly committed to a peaceful transition.
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