President Trump, however, made a different choice. In an extraordinary breach of the American democratic process, he decided to exploit the potential for confusion about the staggered timing of vote counting to deceive the American public about the election results. He and his allies foreshadowed this decision in their statements in the months leading up to the November 2020 election.
1.2 TRUMP'S PRE-ELECTION PLANS TO DECLARE VICTORY
On Halloween, advisor Steve Bannon, who had served four years earlier as Donald Trump's 2016 campaign manager, laid out the election night plan. "What Trump's gonna do is just declare victory. Right? He's gonna declare victory. But that doesn't mean he's a winner," Bannon told a private audience. "He's just gonna say he's a winner."[15]
Bannon explained that the Democrats "[would] have a natural disadvantage" on election night, because more Democrats would vote by mail than Republicans and it would take time to count the mail-in ballots. This would give President Trump the illusion of a lead. "And Trump's going to take advantage of it," Bannon said. "That's our strategy. He's gonna declare himself a winner."[16]
In an interview on Fox News the morning of the election, Bannon insisted that President Trump needed to address the nation that night, to "provide the narrative engine for how we go forward."[17] During an episode of his podcast later that same day, Bannon clarified what he meant: President Trump is "going to claim victory. Right? He's going to claim victory."[18]
Tom Fitton drafted a victory statement for the President to read on election night.[19] On October 31st, he emailed the statement to President Trump's assistant, Molly Michael, and social media guru, Dan Scavino. Fitton wrote that election day, November 3rd, was the "deadline by which voters in states across the country must choose a president." Fitton argued that counting ballots that arrived after election day would be part of an effort by "partisans" to "overturn" the election results.[20]
Of course, that claim wasn't true—mail-in ballots are regularly processed after election day. Regardless, Fitton encouraged the President to pre-emptively declare victory. "We had an election today—and I won," Fitton wrote for President Trump.[21] Early in the evening on election day, Fitton emailed Michael again to say he had "[j]ust talked to him [President Trump] about the draft [statement]."[22] Later that evening, before President Trump made his election night remarks, Michael replied that she was " … redelivering to him [President Trump] now."[23]
