President Donald Trump, who still hasn’t conceded that he lost the election, will soon be leaving the White House. On his way out, he’s not participating in any of the traditional hand-off rituals that incumbents typically do to welcome newly elected Presidents (like leaving a farewell letter of advice to the new president or having a one-on-one conversation with them).

Trump also apparently wants his departure to involve “a military-style sendoff and a crowd of supporters” at either the White House, the Joint Base Andrews or his final destination, the Palm Beach International Airport, according to CNN.

However, the Pentagon has said it isn’t going to happen.

Keep in mind that President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration celebration is being closed to the public because of the insurrection that Trump encouraged his followers to commit on January 6. At this time, over 20,000 National Guard troops will be on patrol in Washington D.C. and the FBI is tracking threats of violence for Trump supporters and other right-wingers who believe the president’s repeatedly disproven claims that Biden stole the election through an unprecedented nationwide conspiracy of voter fraud.

Regardless, CNN reports Trump has been weighing whether or not to issue pre-emptive pardons for himself and his family members who are all likely to face civil and criminal charges for shady financial self-dealings soon after they leave the White House. He’s also sullen at Republicans who he feels didn’t support him, and his approval rating has dropped to 29 percent, the lowest point of his presidency.

As President Donald Trump continues to insist he won the election, despite the fact that nearly 40 of his campaign’s lawsuits alleging widespread voter fraud have all failed in court, Congressional Republicans are largely following his lead, so much that only 25 out of 222 acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in a new Washington Post poll.

When asked who won the election, 25 Congressional Republicans said Biden and 2 said Trump. When asked if they support Trump’s efforts to claim victory, 9 said they opposed it and 8 supported it, and when asked if they would recognize Biden as the winner if the Electoral College does the same, 30 said yes and 2 said no.

“A team of 25 Post reporters contacted aides for every Republican by email and phone…  and also researched public statements made by the GOP lawmakers in recent weeks to determine their stance on Biden’s win,” the publication reports. “More than 70 percent of Republican lawmakers did not acknowledge The Post’s questions as of Friday evening.”

It’s presumed that many Republicans ducked the question or denied Biden’s win in order to avoid incurring the wrath of the Trump and his supporters who have pledged to vote out anyone who supports Biden’s alleged “theft” of the election.

Of the Republicans, the publication adds, “11 of the 52 Senate Republicans acknowledge Biden’s victory; of the 14 House Republicans who recognize the true winner, six are retiring from politics at the end of this month and two more represent districts that Biden won convincingly.”

As of December 5, Biden won 7,059,780 more popular votes than Trump and 74 more electoral votes. Enough states have certified their election results to make Biden the winner, but Trump continues to try and persuade Republican-led state legislatures to pledge to send “non-faithful electors” in the college to vote Trump in despite losing.

On Friday, Trump’s former counselor Kellyanne Conway said that it looks as if Biden “will prevail” in being seated as the next president in January 2021.

President Donald Trump is looking to cement his racist legacy on his way out of the White House by vetoing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a massive annual defense spending bill, simply because it contains a popular, bipartisan provision to rename military bases that were named after treasonous Confederate military leaders who fought against the federal government and spilled American blood for the “right” to own, rape, torture and kill Black slaves.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress agreed to the provision and so did former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who Trump fired on November 9.

While some Trump loyalists, like  Republican Senate Armed Services Committee member Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, have said that Trump’s threat should get legislators to consider dropping the provision, three dozen Senate Democrats recently wrote a letter urging that the provision remain.

“Millions of servicemembers of color have lived on, trained at, and deployed from installations named to honor traitors that killed Americans in defense of chattel slavery,” the letter says. “Renaming these bases does not disrespect our military – it honors the sacrifices and contributions of our servicemembers in a way that better reflects our nation’s diversity and values. We know who these bases were named for and why they were named. It is long past the time to correct this longstanding, historic injustice. We must not shrink from our solemn duty in his moment.”

Trump’s veto may not matter anyway for two reasons: First, the bill could still pass through Congress with veto-proof majorities and second, Biden (who supports renaming the bases) could easily require a renaming of the bases through an executive order as soon as he becomes president in Januaray, making the change happen much faster than congressional legislation would have.

Weirdly, the NDAA usually is approved by congress and the president each year for the last 50 years without any issue. Trump shows that he’s willing to shoot himself, the miitary and veterans in the foot by vetoing the bill as its blockage would essentially deny a pay raise for troops, prevent funding for female-specific uniforms and body armor, and end “funding to support quality of life for service members and their families, including measures this year to support education for military children with special needs whose families have to frequently change school districts,” according to NBC News.