Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

White House under assumption of ‘second Trump term’, says top trade adviser

White House under assumption of ‘second Trump term’, says top trade adviser

The comments by Peter Navarro marked the second time this week that an administration official has falsely projected four more years for Trump.

The Trump administration on Friday doubled down on its refusal to acknowledge the results of the presidential election, with top trade adviser Peter Navarro asserting falsely that US President Donald Trump “won the election” and claiming that he was on track for another four years in office.

“We are moving forward here at the White House under the assumption that there will be a second Trump term,” Navarro said in an interview with Fox Business.

The comments marked the second time this week that a senior administration official has falsely projected a second Trump term. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday vowed a “smooth transition to a second Trump administration”.

Pressed later on Friday about whether Trump would attend President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox Business: “The president will attend his own inauguration. He would have to be there, in fact.”

The statements run counter to the reality of Biden’s increasingly resilient victory in both the critical Electoral College and the popular vote. On Friday afternoon, US media outlets including CNN, The New York Times and NBC projected that Biden will win Georgia, taking his final electoral vote tally to 306 versus Trump’s 232.

Trump won by the same margin in 2016 – a “massive landslide victory”, in his own words after that year’s election.

The refusal to acknowledge Biden’s win comes amid unsubstantiated claims by Trump allies that his losses were the result of widespread voter fraud committed by Democrats, allegations that have been dismissed by state election officials and thrown out by judges. Top national security officials recently called the November 3 election the “most secure” in American history.

“If you look statistically at what happened, clearly the president won this election, was leading on Election Day,” Navarro said on Friday. “And then, after Election Day, somehow in these key battleground states, they got just enough votes to catch up to the president.”

The vote count narrowed in the days after November 3 in a number of key states largely because absentee ballots, which tend to favour Democrats, were processed after in-person ballots cast on Election Day.

Lawsuits launched by the Trump campaign and the Republican Party alleging improper handling of votes have largely failed to stand up in court. Many of the claims centre around anecdotal, isolated incidents that, even if proven true, would be nowhere near significant enough to alter the result of the race.

“The cases that have been filed thus far provide no evidence to support their claims,” Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel said on Friday.

Michigan, one of the battleground states in which Biden erased Trump’s early lead, has seen a number of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign, including a dismissed claim that Republican observers were denied access to vote counting locations.


White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany (left), chairwoman of the Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel and Trump campaign general counsel Matt Morgan speak at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington on November 9.


“Those who continue to push a false narrative claiming our elections were not conducted in a fair, free and transparent manner, or that there is widespread voter fraud, are only trying to erode public confidence in our election system, undermine our democracy and steal the election away from the people of Michigan,” said Nessel.

The campaign’s efforts to thwart Biden’s triumph in other critical states suffered further setbacks on Friday. In Arizona, the Trump team dropped a legal challenge regarding the handling of ballots in vote-rich Maricopa County, acknowledging in a court filing that Biden’s statewide lead effectively rendered the case moot.

In another blow to the Trump campaign, Pennsylvania secretary of state Kathy Boockvar said on Friday that she would not authorise a statewide recount of the vote, given that the margin separating the two candidates did not fall within the 0.5 per cent threshold.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×