Trump is said to have agreed to make his latest video, in which he finally acknowledges the end of his presidency, after realizing he could face legal trouble.
President Trump was “pleased” as hordes of his supporters first stormed the Capitol Building on Wednesday, and he ignored pleas from his aides to step in and defuse the situation, The New York Times reports. Several advisers are said to have frantically tried to convince him to take action, to no avail. As the full fallout of the coup attempt became clear late Thursday—with four people confirmed dead and a Capitol Police officer on life support—Trump released a video in which he finally condemned the violence and acknowledged that his presidency was ending (albeit while clearly reading from a script). But even that two-and-a-half-minute video came not after Trump realized the scope of the damage of the riots but after he realized he could personally face legal trouble, according to the Times. He is said to have initially been against making the video and agreed to it only after it became clear that prosecutors intended to scrutinize his comments to supporters before the coup.
