A deadly virus is killing thousands of Americans each day, a record number of people are now unemployed, and Russian intelligence operatives
have wormed their way into computer networks across multiple government agencies. Yet with just 30 days remaining before his successor’s swearing-in, President Donald Trump remains hunkered down in the White House, increasingly out of touch with reality in a way that is causing even those loyalists to be alarmed over what could transpire during the month left in his presidency.
With
over 50 post-election lawsuits having been unceremoniously dismissed by a bevy of judges – including some of the most conservative in the country and a Supreme Court featuring three of his own appointees – and with top Republicans such as Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell
having congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his victory, an increasingly distraught soon-to-be-ex-president has found succour in the arms of a loose-knit collection of bizarre fringe figures.
“You’d be surprised who the ‘adults in the room’ are these days,” quipped one Trump confidante, employing a term once used to describe some of the steadier, more experienced foreign and domestic policy hands who once roamed the corridors of the Trump-era West Wing. The confidante later added that Trump has all but abandoned both the duties of the office he will hold for 30 more days and the aides who would otherwise be helping him carry them out. Instead, he has spent recent days ensconced in the White House residence, watching television, tweeting, and desperately dialling his phone in search of someone – anyone – who can provide him with a way to stave off the public defenestration that will come when Biden appears on the Capitol’s west front to take the oath of office.
