Trump intends spending Thanksgiving barricaded in the White House to prove he is still president

PRESIDENT Donald Trump has left his supporters guessing at what his next move will be after it emerged that rather than spend the forthcoming US Thanksgiving holiday at his Florida resort as he normally does he will board himself up in the White House.

 

On Thursday November 26, the US will observe the annual Thanksgiving holiday, a yearly ritual first celebrated by the pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. In the past, President Trump has always spent the holiday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida along with other members of his family.

 

This year, however, he is planning to spend Thanksgiving at the White House, hunkering down for what he wants the public to think is an epic fight for his political life. Apparently, President Trump wants his supporters to continue to see him as the legitimate occupant of the White House.

 

His 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. President 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. He said: “A lot of the guidelines you’re seeing are Orwellian.

 

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

 

President Trump is now moving towards the end of the second full week since the election with little sign that he is focused on running the country. However, the White House does plan to go ahead with the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremony next week, in spite of the pandemic.

 

Even though he has suffered a rapid-fire string of losses in courts nationwide, President Trump continues to rally his  supporters behind his message that the elections were rigged. Republican lawmakers have mostly toed Trump’s line and refused to admit that former vice president Joe Biden won the November election, in which he triumphed scoring 306 electoral college votes to President Trump's 232.

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