Trump is making life difficult for his successor Joe Biden

White House bunker mentality: This is how Trump makes life difficult for his successor

Donald Trump oscillates between resignation and defiance. Deep down, he must have come to terms with the loss of Joe Biden. This is why he wants to create as many fait accompli as possible before the change of power.

Donald Trump went into hiding in the White House. There are hardly any public appointments on his agenda. According to CNN, the president of the United States even canceled the planned Thanksgiving trip to his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida next week. One official described the atmosphere towards the TV station as a “bunker mentality”.

Ever since major US media, including Fox News, declared Joe Biden the presidential election winner, Trump has been swinging between resignation and defiance. From time to time he lets it be known that he has come to terms with defeat. “He knows it’s over,” one of his advisers told the New York Times. Officially, however, he does not want to admit it.

Instead, he continues to rage on Twitter against “bogus” elections and spread conspiracy theories about allegedly manipulated voting software. There is no evidence, indeed the election was surprisingly smoothly measured against Corona’s precarious circumstances, even though the count had dragged on for days.

“The safest choice in history”

Christopher Krebs, a senior National Security official, denied the tampering allegations on Tuesday, calling it the “safest choice in American history”. The receipt followed promptly: Donald Trump described Krebs’ portrayal on Twitter as “highly inaccurate” and fired him immediately.

That doesn’t change reality: all lawsuits by Trump’s lawyers against the election result have so far been rejected by the courts. A brazen attempt by Republicans to prevent the results from being authenticated in Michigan’s largest constituency with the Democratic stronghold of Detroit failed after massive protests.

Election results must be certified in states by December 8 for Electoral College to elect the president on December 14. Biden is expected to win there by 306 to 232 votes. Until then, Donald Trump will continue to refuse to acknowledge his defeat. Maybe it never does.

According to Politico, it’s not even clear whether the outgoing president will attend Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021. There hasn’t been such an affront for more than 150 years. In any case, Trump is doing everything possible to make an orderly transition to his successor difficult or even impossible.

No access to information

The president-elect’s team continues to lack access to important offices and information. Republican senators also criticize this blockade. They demand that Biden receive at least the daily intelligence briefings.

The setback in the “transition” contrasts with the activism that Trump has developed in various sectors in recent days. He is apparently trying to leave his successor with a fait accompli while cleaning up his balance sheet:

• From Monday, oil and gas companies can apply for drilling rights in a wildlife reserve in Alaska. These could be sold ahead of the power shift, which will likely complicate the Biden government’s climate plans. One of the new president’s priorities is to re-enter the Paris climate agreement, from which Trump withdrew.
• On Wednesday, according to Politico, Trump wants to present a plan with which he wants to act against the high prices of drugs in the US. In addition to the benefit to patients, it would have a welcome side effect: Trump could “take revenge” on the pharmaceutical industry for the fact that the breakthrough in corona vaccines was only announced after the election.

• The president is particularly active in foreign policy. On Tuesday it announced the reduction of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq to 2,500 troops each by January 15. The decision was criticized at home and abroad. There are fears that instability will increase in both countries and that the “Islamic State” terrorist militia will strengthen.
• On Monday, a New York Times report caused the sensation that Trump was considering an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities last week. His advisors have dissuaded him, but the president apparently wants to impose further sanctions on Iran to make it more difficult for Biden to return to the nuclear deal, which he had renounced.

Also, Mike Pompeo apparently wants to be the first US Secretary of State to visit an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank this week. Israel is also pushing the construction of more than 1,200 homes in annexed East Jerusalem. Joe Biden criticized such plans in 2010 as the then vice president.

Trump calls himself a “realist”

On the other hand, Donald Trump is largely inactive in the crown crisis, although the number of cases in the United States has hit new record highs. He also refuses Biden’s team from working together in this area. This must be done “as soon as possible,” the president-elect asked Monday: “If we don’t vote, more people could die.”

Joe Biden cannot do much, even though in fact there has been a law since 1963 that regulates the transition phase from an old government to a new one. He wants to return the favor by reversing various decisions made by his predecessor on his first day in the White House, his chief of staff Ron Klain announced Sunday.

Until then, there are still two months in which Trump can throw some bat between the legs. Eventually he will likely submit to his fate. In an interview with Fox News presenter Geraldo Rivera, he is said to have called himself a “realist” last week. Maybe Donald Trump eventually disappears through the back door.