Trump asked aides if he could pursue a wild plan to replace the Electoral College with loyalists who would ignore the vote, report says
- President Donald Trump has asked aides about a plan to remain in office by subverting the Electoral College, The New York Times reported Thursday.
- Under the plan, GOP-controlled state legislatures would ignore the popular vote in swing states and appoint Trump loyalists as electors to secure the president a second term.
- Business Insider reported earlier Thursday that the plan was gaining currency among some Trump supporters — despite how unlikely it is to work.
- Experts say the plan, though technically possible, would face enormous legal and political obstacles.
- The Times' sources stressed that though Trump had asked about the plan, he did not seem to entertain it seriously.
President Donald Trump has asked top aides about a wild plan that involves replacing electors in swing states with loyalists to secure himself a second term, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
The Times report came hours after Business Insider reported that the plan was gaining currency among Trump allies.
The plan hinges on Republican state legislatures deciding to ignore the states' results and instead send a new group of electors to the Electoral College who would cast their votes for Trump.
Such a plan, while technically possible, has been widely dismissed by experts as unworkable in practice and an affront to US democracy. Business Insider's report noted some of the problems with making it work.
Citing sources familiar with Trump's activities, The Times reported that the president pressed his advisors about the plan at a meeting on Wednesday.
"It was not a detailed conversation, or really a serious one," and did not reflect any "obsessive desire" of Trump to remain in office, the report described the sources as saying.
Trump has made no public statement since Insider projected Joe Biden to win the presidency on Friday and other major news organizations called the race for him on Saturday.
He has spent time playing golf, watching cable news, and tweeting accusations of electoral fraud, many of which Twitter has labeled misleading.
According to reports, top advisors have admitted privately that Trump's lawsuits challenging vote counts in swing states are unlikely to succeed.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.