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Trump has pulled ahead for now: his plans to prematurely declare himself the winner of the election have been assessed
The conventional wisdom is that Trump has nothing to lose by claiming victory if he leads by hundreds of thousands of votes in Pennsylvania or if internal polls show he has a chance to win, even if the results are not fully certified Tuesday night.
But even Trump's most combative allies, including former White House strategist Stephen Bannon, who one source said spoke to him last week, have suggested holding off on conversations in the late afternoon, when Trump goes to bed. Make a fool of yourself.
In the final days of the campaign, Trump and his campaign team sounded confident, raising hopes among his supporters that he would win and setting the stage for unsubstantiated claims that the election had been stolen if Trump lost and Harris took the White House. Hasty claims of victory may have played a role in this phenomenon, The Guardian notes.
The deciding factor in what Trump does on election night is himself. His aides acknowledge that if Trump decides to announce his decision, he will do whatever he wants, and his travel-weary team may not have the guts or the clout to persuade him.
The Trump team's collective dismissal of the possibility of prematurely declaring the former president the winner of 2024, as happened after the 2020 election, is remarkable in its own right. .
Trump's hasty announcement may not have had the same surprising effect as it did four years ago. Harris's campaign said the outrageous Republican was preparing to do something similar again.
This time, Trump has said less about what he plans to do on election night, unlike the 2020 election, when he signaled to friends and allies his intention to declare victory regardless of the outcome, the people said.
Trump dodged questions about his intentions during Tuesday's vote.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen if we declare victory,” Trump said. “I think we have a very important advantage. I think we got more Republicans than Democrats. So if you’re ahead and you have more votes, that means you’re doing well, but they’re going to have to call a winner. And we’re going to have to call a winner.”
But whether because of his aides' efforts to prevent a plot to overturn the election results, or because the media's position differs from his personal view, Trump has been more reserved in his intentions.
Trump will watch the results at a private party at his Mar-a-Lago club for club members, donors and other friends and family, while the official campaign watch party will be held a short drive away at a convention center in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The private party will start earlier, and Trump will likely show attendees that he is winning, the people said. The Mar-a-Lago incident was described as a knife fight.
It is unclear whether President Trump will insist on winning the party at the convention center. Trump aides have suggested that if he decides to declare himself the winner, his motorcade will come from Mar-a-Lago; if not, he may not show up at all.