Day 1,427: Trump keeps telling advisers he may refuse to leave White House on January 20

Fat chance.

During the dying days of his time in office, friends and associates of Donald Trump are reportedly calling in droves, seeking pardons for their crimes. Trump is reveling in the power.

Since Trump lost the election six weeks ago, calls and emails have been flooding into the West Wing from people looking to benefit from the President’s powers of clemency. So inundated is Trump’s staff with requests for pardons or commutations that a spreadsheet has been created to keep track of the requests directed to Trump’s close aides.

With the end of his presidency nearing, Trump appears eager to wield his powers before he finds them gone. Unlike practically any other matter related to the end of his presidency, his clemency powers are a topic Trump actually seems to enjoy discussing, one person in communication with the President said, even though it amounts to another tacit reminder that his tenure at the White House is nearly over.

Buried in the middle of the CNN report, however, was a sign that Trump is still rejecting reality, even ranting that he’ll refuse to leave the White House when Joe Biden is sworn in five weeks from today.

In his moments of deepest denial, Trump has told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day, only to be walked down from that ledge. The possibility has alarmed some aides, but few believe Trump will actually follow through.

“He’s throwing a f***ing temper tantrum,” an adviser said. “He’s going to leave. He’s just lashing out.”

The White House declined to comment for this report.

If Trump has proven one thing in his life — and again over the past four years — it’s that he’s a tremendous coward. When protesters were blocks away and behind fences, Trump hid in the White House bunker designed to protect staff from a terrorist attack. Suffice to say, there’s no chance he makes a Custer-like stand in the Oval Office.

Once Biden is sworn in, Trump will be out in every sense of the word.

1,427 days in, 35 to go

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