"No one supports me," Trump yelled. "No one gives me any fucking support."

Are the two Patriots? Up to the majority of the American people to decide.

 

By Mike Allen 

President Trump plans to issue 100+ pardons and commutations before leaving office, an administration official tells Axios' Alayna Treene, confirming a CNN report. Defense officials are worried about an insider attack from service members securing the inauguration, prompting the FBI to vet all 25,000 National Guard troops. —AP

1 big thing ... "Off the rails,"  : Trump turns on Barr

Photo illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios. Photos: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Episode 4 of "Off the rails," our fly-on-the-wall series on President Trump's final days by Jonathan Swan and Zachary Basu: Attorney General Bill Barr stood behind a chair in the private dining room next to the Oval Office, looming over Donald Trump. The president sat at the head of the table. It was Dec. 1, nearly a month after the election. The president's theories about a stolen election, Barr told Trump, were "bullshit." White House counsel Pat Cipollone and a few other aides in the room were shocked Barr had come out and said it — although they knew it was true. For good measure, the attorney general threw in a warning that the new legal team Trump was betting his future on was "clownish." Three weeks later, Barr would be gone. The relationship between the president and his attorney general was arguably the most consequential in Trump's Cabinet. Nobody was more loyal than Bill Barr. But for Trump, it was never enough. By the late summer of 2020, Trump and Barr were regularly skirmishing over how to handle the rising Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd. Trump wanted the U.S. government to crack down hard on the unrest. The president wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act and send the military into U.S. cities. He wanted troops in the street. The thankless job of pushing back fell to Barr. The president regularly summoned a group of national security leaders to the Oval Office, and one mid-August meeting was particularly volatile. From his seat behind the Resolute Desk, an agitated Trump told Barr to go and do something, and to do it right away — make an announcement, send in the troops, something. He wanted a devastating and provocative show of strength. "No one supports me," Trump yelled. "No one gives me any fucking support."