Lame duck Donald Trump, in his final days, is turning bitterly on virtually every person around him, griping about anyone who refuses to indulge conspiracy theories or hopeless bids to overturn the election.
Targets of his outrage include Vice President Pence, chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Secretary of State Pompeo and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Trump sought to take credit for McConnell’s reelection after plotting with House Republicans Monday on finding a way to overturn the election.
An aide to the president sent House Republicans a graph showing a series of polls conducted on McConnell’s race against Democrat Amy McGrath – and presented just two events on the timeline, both involving Trump.
The graph suggests Trump’s June 19 tweet touting McConnell was determinative, and also shows an Oct. 31 Trump robocall that directly preceded an uptick in McConnell’s support.
‘From POTUS,’ it said, using an acronym for the president.
”SADLY, MITCH FORGOT. HE WAS THE FIRST ONE OFF THE SHIP!’ said a headline on the top of the graph.
Trump assistant Molly Michael sent the information ‘at the president’s request.’
Unstated was that Trump throughout the campaign attacked the polls as fake – and that in his own race many of them were off the mark.
It also discounts other factors, such as the economy, the performance of his opponent, and what turned out to be a surprisingly good environment for Republicans across the House and Senate, where McConnell was never among the most likely incumbents to be defeated.
His attack came days after McConnell finally acknowledged Joe Biden as president-elect, after the Electoral College met to make his 306 to 232 win over Trump official.
Congress meets to count the votes Jan. 6, and McConnell is discouraging his own members from voicing election challenges.
Trump met Monday at the White House with House Republicans who have echoed his calls of election fraud.
For a challenge to go forward, a House and Senate member would each have to sign onto a letter, but it would likely to go down to defeat in the Democratic House and even in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Among those blasting out the email was Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory who was at the White House for a Trump meeting Monday.
She wrote that McConnell should ”support’ Trump ‘and join our objection on Jan. 6.’
‘Look at how much President Trump’s endorsement tweet helped him,’ she wrote.
Trump’s attack on McConnell comes as he has been turning to former campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, who has put forward conspiracy theories about the election being rigged by Venezuela, Cuba, China, and voting machines that ‘flipped’ votes to Biden from Trump.
A source who spoke to Trump told Axios that Trump was complaining about Pence and brought up a Lincoln Project ad that claims that Pence is “backing away” from Trump.
This ad has clearly got inside Trump’s head, the source said.
WATCH: Pence Ad By Lincoln Project:
Trump views Pence as not fighting hard enough for him — the same complaint he uses against virtually everybody who works for him and has been loyal to him.
Pence’s role on Jan. 6 has begun to loom large in Trump’s mind, according to people who’ve discussed the matter with him.
Trump would view Pence performing his constitutional duty — and validating the election result — as the ultimate betrayal.
According to several administration sources, Trump thinks everyone around him is weak, stupid or disloyal — and increasingly seeks comfort only in people who egg him on to overturn the election results.
Axios reports: “We cannot stress enough how unnerved Trump officials are by the conversations unfolding inside the White House. Top officials are trying to stay away from the West Wing right now.”