Trump hunkers down at White House for Thanksgiving as ouster looms

The First Family will spend Thanksgiving at the White House as President Donald Trump hunkers down for what he wants the public to think is an epic fight for his political life.

Even as Trump stays out of sight and avoids questions about his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden, he apparently wants his #MAGA supporters to continue to see him as the legitimate occupant of the White House.

Trump has in past years spent the holiday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida along with other members of his family.

The decision to stay put is almost certainly not related to any desire to set a good example to avoid unnecessary travel, amid the soaring coronavirus crisis.

Trump has stubbornly avoided implementing basic public health precautions, apparently because he believes it shows weakness or is an admission of his failure to manage the pandemic.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany even denounced common-sense limits on gatherings that many governors have implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“A lot of the guidelines you’re seeing are Orwellian,” McEnany told Fox News.

“The American people know how to protect their health. We’ve dealt with COVID-19 for many months.”

The Republican president’s public schedule had no events again on Wednesday, as he moves toward the end of the second full week since the election with little sign that he is focused on running the country.

The White House does reportedly plan to go ahead with the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremony next week, in spite of the pandemic.

Trump lost the election to Biden, who won with 306 electoral votes.

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Biden leads the popular vote by nearly 6 million votes, with many more still to be tabulated.

Even though he has suffered a rapid-fire string of losses in courts nationwide, Trump continues to rally his #MAGA supporters behind his quixotic effort to deny the reality of his defeat.

Republican lawmakers have mostly toed Trump’s line and refused to admit that Biden won or call on Trump to cooperate with the transition effort.

However, there is a slight thawing in relations.

For all the accusations and rancour about Election Day, one of Trump’s most vocal defenders, Lindsey Graham, (R-South Carolina), was spotted on the Senate floor on Tuesday exchanging a fist bump with Vice-President-elect Senator Kamala Harris, (D-California), in spite of denying her victory in the election. (dpa/NAN)