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Eric Trump, the former president's son, "flipped out" and yelled at his father's campaign data analysts at the White House as results came in on election night, an excerpt from a new book by the Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker said.
He had predicted to friends the night before that his father would win reelection with 322 electoral votes, and he was upset that campaign staffers were reporting otherwise, the excerpt from "I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year" said.
"We pay you to do this," he reportedly yelled at staffers in the White House's Map Room, which had been transformed into a Trump campaign war room. "How can this be happening?"
The excerpt suggested he was confused about how votes could continue to be counted through election night as states processed an unprecedented number of absentee ballots, work that some state legislatures had delayed until Election Day.
"The election is being stolen," Eric was quoted as saying. "Where are these votes coming from? How is this legit?"
Joe Biden ultimately won with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232. He trounced Trump in the popular vote by more than 7 million votes.
The journalist Michael Wolff also reported in his new book, "Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency," out on Tuesday, that Eric "grilled" staffers after Fox News called Arizona for Biden before the other networks had. "Where are these votes in Arizona coming from? How is this happening?" he was quoted as saying. "You said we were good."
The ex-president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was just as confident that his dad would win reelection and assured others on election night that "there's no way we lose" to Biden, Leonnig and Rucker wrote.
The president similarly yelled at staffers as his leads in key states like Pennsylvania shrank throughout the night, Leonnig and Rucker reported.
"Why are they still counting votes?" Trump said to his deputy campaign manager, Justin Clark, according to the excerpt. "The election's closed. Are they counting ballots that came in afterward? What the hell is going on?"
Spokespeople for Trump and Eric denied yelling at staffers, Leonnig and Rucker wrote.
In a speech from the White House on election night, Trump falsely claimed that the election had been rigged and that he'd won states including Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania that were then too close to call.
"This is a fraud on the American public," Trump said, beginning months of lies about the election results. "This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election."
