Trump turns on Pence as Lincoln Project ad ‘gets in his head’, report says

President is reportedly lashing out at closest aides

Donald Trump has reportedly turned on his vice president, Mike Pence, and is lashing out at most of his closest allies in the dying days of his presidency.

Sources say the defeated incumbent is dismissive of aides who do not fully back his false claims that mass voter fraud took place in the 2020 election.

His chief of staff, Mark Meadows; White House counsel, Pat Cipollone; the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo; and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, are all said to be in the line of fire.

Complaining about a lack of support from Mr Pence, it is believed the president brought up a recent Lincoln Project advert to back up his gripe.

The commercial pointed out that it is likely to be the outgoing vice president who will seal Mr Trump's fate when Congress certifies Joe Biden's victory on 6 January.

That, one source told Axios, has got inside the president's head.

A small but determined group of Trump loyalists, most of them in the House of  Representatives, are planning to challenge the 6 January confirmation of Mr Biden's win.

Constitutional scholars, however – and many other GOP lawmakers – say the bid to overturn the election result is destined to fail.

But the affair could get messy and may well mean Mr Pence is tasked with declaring, once and for all, that Mr Biden won the election.

Under federal law, the president of the Senate – which is currently Mr Pence – is tasked with presenting the EC votes to Congress and announcing the election winner.

That would set up an awkward situation in which Mr Pence is forced to confirm that he and the president lost to Mr Biden.

Trump would view that as the ultimate betrayal, the source told Axios.  

Despite the EC meeting earlier this month to certify Mr Biden's election victory, the defeated incumbent continues to falsely insist that he won the election.

The president and his legal team continue to allege, without evidence, that mass voter fraud took place in key swing states across the country.

They have now filed roughly 50 lawsuits aimed at overturning or frustrating the results. But almost all of them have been dismissed or dropped.