“The names will be coming out. I just can’t say it now. But it’s a group of people representing powerful entities. It’s a disgrace.”

“Can you give me a heads-up on this? On when this will come out?”

“It’s not Joe Biden. He was so unexpected. The reasons they had to shut down is that I got so many more votes than they thought. I got more votes by far than any sitting president. It’s not even close. You look at the some of the telltale signs, like eighteen out of nineteen statehouses—unheard-of. If you win Florida and Ohio, you just don’t lose. If you win Florida and Ohio and Iowa—in the history of our country nobody has lost. It’s almost impossible. I won all three by a lot, by a landslide…”

“Election Night—”

“I got a call on Election Night from a guy I have no great regard for, Karl Rove, and he was kissing my ass, because that’s what he does; if you win, he kisses your ass. So, Karl Rove called at approximately ten thirty to congratulate me on the great victory. He thought we won the election, along with everybody else—all over by ten thirty and then…”

He suddenly spied a Mar-a-Lago member couple lingering nearby:

“Hello, folks … How are you?… Everything was good?… Have a good time?”

He’s part tummler and host. In a sense, the Mar-a-Lago attention and deference is, to him, a proxy for the Republican Party and its Trump base—no matter that these are all multimillionaire-class retirees.

“These people—there has never been anything like it. They feel cheated—and they are angry…” This precipitates a recitation of all the Republicans now beating a path to his door: “If I don’t endorse, they are going to lose.”

And another couple: “Hello, folks … Oh, I love that mask”—reading TRUMP—“show him that mask. He’s the most powerful reporter. Well, you look good in it. Have a good time”—without a pause—“Hi, Wilbur, my Wilbur Ross, how are you? Have a good time?”

I push forward: “Was there pressure for you to concede?”

“You know I’ve never conceded…”

“It’s unique that you didn’t. Nixon—”

“He conceded right away. And he also left before impeachment. You know his biggest regret was that he didn’t fight impeachment. Did you know that? He had bad tapes. The tapes were not good. But his biggest regret was that he didn’t fight impeachment. His daughters came to me—they were at a party—and said, ‘My father’s biggest regret, and we love that you fight it all the time.’ You know I call it ‘the impeachment hoax,’ number one and number two.