The Trump children
Along with the first lady, the other three most influential people in the Trump orbit are his oldest children, Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump, all of whom have amplified the voice of their father after his election loss, calling for Americans to "fight" against what they baselessly deemed a corrupt election.
Trump Jr. was part of a roster of speakers at the Ellipse Wednesday morning, more than willing to inflame an already blindly loyal and largely infuriated group of supporters. "This gathering should send a message to them. This isn't their Republican Party anymore," railed Trump Jr. "This is Donald Trump's Republican Party."
He addressed lawmakers in his hype speech, which was peppered with expletives: "You can be a hero, or you can be a zero. And the choice is yours. But we are all watching. The whole world is watching, folks. Choose wisely."
Eric Trump and his wife Lara spoke too, and listened with big smiles as the crowd of thousands serenaded the younger Trump with "Happy Birthday;" he turned 37. The couple vociferously maligned the democratic election process, and the will of American voters who elected Joe Biden as President. The crowd loved it.
"We live in the greatest country in the world, and we will never, ever, ever stop fighting," said Eric Trump, the word "fight" a dog whistle to the eager crowd who were just blocks from where they -- falsely -- believed their future was being dealt an illegal hand by lawmakers. Shortly after Eric and Lara left the stage, they were whisked by Secret Service to the airport -- the match they helped light in the rear-view as they flew back to their multimillion dollar New York home.
The President was at the rally, too, of course. The headliner, he first watched the crowd on monitors from a tented VIP area with his daughter Ivanka Trump, who did not speak at the rally, before he took the stage.
Ivanka Trump would shortly be the one whose responsibility it was to press her father to publicly call for the violence to stop -- but not before she sent her own tweet, referring to the Trump supporters rioting as "American Patriots."
"American Patriots -- any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable," wrote Trump, who also said the violence must stop. After being called out for dubbing them "patriots," Trump deleted her tweet.
At the White House, panic was setting in. "The President didn't want to listen to people telling him he had to get these people to stop doing this," a White House official told CNN.
"Everyone else was told to leave the room," a different source close to Ivanka Trump told CNN of her emergency meeting with the President in the Oval Office. Trump had been called on by multiple people, both in person in her West Wing office and from Capitol Hill, where she had multiple contacts. "The message was, 'President Trump has to tell these people to stop. He's the only one they'll listen to,'" said the source, who noted Ivanka Trump was already more than aware the rioters were wreaking irretrievable damage.
In their meeting, Ivanka Trump argued he
r father must make an immediate, televised address to the nation, the source said. The President was hesitant, with multiple sources telling CNN he appeared at times to enjoy watching the chaos he had unleashed unfold. Trump turned down the request for an immediate televised address, but would eventually compromise with a milquetoast version of reproach from the Rose Garden, which he then tweeted. "We love you," he said in a recorded video to the people who forced lawmakers and staff to hide under chairs, scared for their lives. "Go home," as though they had stayed too long at a dinner party.
"He will do what he wants to do," said the source close to Ivanka, referring to the President. "But if she wasn't in there yesterday, his tweets would have been a lot different," the source added. Ivanka Trump has often received public criticism for taking credit for working "behind the scenes" on issues related to the President -- and this time will likely be no exception. But the source told CNN Wednesday's actions were not "virtue signaling by her."
On Thursday evening, in another prerecorded video message, the President publicly conceded for the first time that he will not serve a second term, although he stopped short of congratulating Biden. With his presidency threatened by resignations and potential impeachment, Trump acknowledged that a transfer of power to a new administration is underway.
Ivanka Trump and her brother Don Jr. later retweeted the video.
