Trump’s demoralized staff counting down the days

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has lost the support of many former loyalists in his administration after a riot at the U.S. Capitol that he helped provoke, and his White House is in “meltdown” as it lurches through his final days, current and former officials said.

As Democrats planned to introduce an article of impeachment against Trump on

Monday, many White House staff members were upset and embarrassed by the turn of events, and are eager to move on. They said they have faced criticism from peers and are worried about damage to their reputations and job prospects.

Some who weighed resigning in the last few days have decided to stay on to help ensure a smooth transfer of power and, within the agencies that report to the White House, to protect against rash moves by the president or his remaining inner circle.

“He has lost us. He's lost his own administration. As I said, many of us feel betrayed,” said one senior administration official at an agency outside the White House. “In terms of taking any direction on policy or any last-minute fly-by sort of changes, I think we're all resisting.”

Throughout the government, officials are counting down the days until Trump's term ends on Jan. 20.

“All I've heard is that it's a complete meltdown. But the President is not backing down. They're going to double down on this,” one former White House official said.

Trump in a video on Thursday called the attack on Congress “heinous” and pledged a smooth transfer of power to the next administration. He did not concede that he lost the election, or drop his unsubstantiated claim that it was fraudulent, or mention President-elect Joe Biden by name.

Trump and his inner circle are trying to draw attention away from the siege of the Capitol and back onto his main policies in the final days of his presidency.

This week, Trump plans to visit the U.S.-Mexico border on a trip to Texas to tout his immigration policies and visit a section of the border wall he had built to stop migrants crossing into the country. He also will hold new Medal of Freedom ceremonies at the White House.