In a Dark Place: Before Trump condemned violence, Trump spent the day increasingly isolated and angry

The video, which was tweeted shortly after 7pm, followed pressure from advisers to respond more forcefully to the riot at the Capitol, which killed five people, including a Capitol Police officer. Several of his closest advisers have publicly condemned his response to the violence, and White House counsel Pat Cipollone warned the president that he was at risk on legal grounds related to the riot, according to a person familiar with the conversation. .

The president spent the day in the White House without access to the social media accounts that helped him rise to power, as advisers described him as increasingly angry and isolated. His Twitter account had been banned for a while and Facebook banned him from his platform, citing messages from companies believed to incite violence or undermine the election process.

Members of his inner circle, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, senior adviser Stephen Miller, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Mr. Cipollone and the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, urged him to make another statement on Thursday, said assistants. he Americans had to hear directly from the president.

They told the president it was important to keep supporters from participating in violent riots in Mr. Trump’s name, especially as inauguration day approaches, the aides said.

On Thursday morning, the president very briefly addressed a members’ breakfast through a speaker at the winter meeting of the Republican National Committee in Florida, thanking donors for their services to the party but not addressing the riots, according to a person confessed was with the conversation.

Later in the day, he awarded the Medal of Freedom to golfers Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player in a private ceremony.

Trump planned to spend the weekend at Camp David, but a White House official said those plans had been scrapped. Officials also planned a possible presidential trip to Texas next week for an event at the border, a White House employee said.

In past times of crisis, the president has often spent hours on the phone calling dozens of friends and advisers to get their opinions. That was not the case Wednesday and Thursday, aides said, as several of the president’s closest advisers publicly condemned his response to the riots. He has also turned down calls from advisers, including former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who said he spent 25 minutes trying to reach the president on Wednesday to urge him to stop the violence.

The White House declined to comment.

Advisers said the president remains consumed with anger towards Vice President Mike Pence over what he saw as treason for refusing to attempt to block congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory. Several White House officials steered clear of the Oval Office on Thursday, wanting to avoid a president described by an adviser as “in a dark place.” Advisers said the president appears to be more consumed by his election loss than remorseful of the riot.

“It’s like seeing someone destroy themselves before your eyes, and you can’t do anything,” said another adviser who recently spoke with the president.

On Wednesday, shortly before the president left the White House to make comments to supporters, Mr. Pence told him that he did not have the constitutional authority to prevent certain voters from being counted, which the president forced him to do, according to famous people with the talk. Mr. Pence said that according to one of the people, it would set a bad precedent for him to deviate from course.

The president was furious, people said. “I don’t want to be your friend,” Mr. Trump said to Mr. Pence, according to one of the people. “I want you to be the vice president.”

Many of the president’s aides are troubled by his attacks on Mr. Pence, one of his closest allies. Some advisers to the president have praised Mr. Pence for following the constitution while under pressure from Mr. Trump to reverse the election results.

The violence in the Capitol on Wednesday and its aftermath has also unfolded against the backdrop of another major blow to the White House and the Republican Party: losing in two second Senate elections in Georgia, meaning Democrats chambers of Congress as the the White House beginning January 20. Several of the president’s advisers criticized his aggressive fraud allegations for the Republicans’ losses this week.

Meanwhile, the lines around the president have thinned out in the 24 hours since the riot in the Capitol. On Thursday, the Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, became the first cabinet secretary to resign, citing the “completely avoidable” storming of the Capitol. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos resigned Thursday evening, saying in a letter to the president that there was “no misunderstanding of the impact your rhetoric had” on Wednesday’s events. At least five other government officials have also resigned, and several more – including national security adviser Robert O’Brien – have considered doing so, aides said. Mr. O’Brien is expected to stay for the time being due to national security concerns, they said.

“People are very realistic about how bad this is,” said one adviser. Many White House officials are despondent about the events of the past 24 hours and see it as a terrible way to end the presidency, the adviser said.

On Wednesday, the president was in “bunker mode,” according to a person close to the White House, as aides tried to persuade him to condemn the violence in the Capitol.

The president’s advisers – including the vice president – were appalled by his reluctance to do so, people familiar with the talks said. Mr. Trump had to be persuaded to issue tweets and a subsequent video statement urging rioters to go home – calling them “very special” and saying “we love you” – because he “didn’t want to do anything,” one said. of the people.

The president’s inner circle is the smallest he has ever been, people close to him said. He increasingly communicates largely with dedicated advisors, Mr. Miller, John McEntee and Dan Scavino. Even some of Mr. Trump’s most staunch defenders have distanced themselves. Senator Lindsey Graham (R., SC) said on the Senate floor on Wednesday evening: “Do the math. Enough is enough.”

The president’s own advisers say they view his recent behavior as increasingly self-defeating. Assistants watched the riots in the Capitol on TV with horror. One adviser described the president’s behavior as increasingly erratic and unpredictable.

Some government officials and outside advisers to the president, according to a senior government official and others familiar with the case, have begun discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment, as lawmakers in both sides have called on the cabinet to do so. The move would allow Mr.Pence to take over from the president’s duties if cabinet officials felt Mr. Trump was unable to do his job. But it is widely considered unlikely to come to fruition, the people familiar with the discussions said, in part because the president has less than two weeks left in his tenure.

It remains unclear what the remaining 13 days of Mr Trump’s presidency will look like. Government officials have drafted a series of executive orders that the president could sign on issues such as the role of independent agencies and buy US renewable energy requirements. But multiple officials said it was difficult to direct Mr. Trump’s attention to policy issues.

Board officials have also been consumed by pardon talks in recent weeks. Among those for whom pardon has been discussed is rapper Lil Wayne, who pleaded guilty to a federal firearms charge in December, people familiar with the talks said. Trump met the rapper in October.

The president recently told advisers that he is considering pardoning himself before leaving office, which some allies have urged to do, but that, according to a person familiar with the discussions, has a questionable legal basis. The New York Times first reported his recent interest and Mr. Cipollone’s warning about the president’s legal exposure.

The Justice Department said in a 1974 legal memorandum that a president cannot pardon himself under the legal principle that “no one should be a judge in his own case,” but some jurists disagree with the opinion and it is never tested in court. . Mr. Trump said in 2018 that he had the “absolute right” to self-forgiveness, “but why should I do that if I haven’t done anything wrong?”

—Catherine Lucey and Alex Leary contributed to this article.

Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at [email protected] and Andrew Restuccia at [email protected]