The real reason Donald Trump just conceded and promised an orderly transition to Biden
Just before 4:00am eastern time, Congress and Mike Pence formally announced that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have won the 2020 election and will take office on January 20th. A few minutes later, Donald Trump issued a surprise statement admitting that it’s over and promising an orderly transition to Biden. So what’s really going on?
Trump’s statement, posted by his social media handler Dan Scavino, reads like something an insecure toddler would write: “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”
Given Scavino’s loyalty to Trump, it’s pretty much a given that Trump signed off on this statement, and that Scavino isn’t simply making it up. But why is Trump even doing this? He’s pointlessly dragged out his loss for two months, in a battle that’s been entirely imaginary, so why not also pretend to drag it out for his final two weeks?
There has been buzz all night about the 25th Amendment, with CBS News reporting that multiple cabinet members are discussing it. Our guess is that Trump is afraid he really will be removed from office early if he doesn’t play nice; perhaps Pence specifically informed him of this scenario.
This does not mean that Trump is going to play nice for these final two weeks. But by conceding tonight and promising an orderly transition, Trump has made it a lot harder for himself to change his mind and start pretending to contest the election again.
