Trump Believed Conspiracy Theory That He Could Be ‘Reinstated’ To The White House After His 2020 Loss, New Book Says

Former President Donald Trump seriously believed a fringe conspiracy that suggested the possibility of his reinstatement as president, even after his defeat in the 2020 election and his departure from the White House.

ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl‘s new book, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Ole Party, provides insight into the origins of Trump’s belief in this theory, which was supported by some of his most loyal allies. 

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was among those who actively promoted the false belief that Trump could return to the White House on August 13, 2021, despite the end of Trump’s first term on Inauguration Day, several months prior.

This groundless theory falsely asserted that President Joe Biden was not the legitimate president and that the military was in control until Trump was reinstated, a scenario that never materialized.

In a 2021 interview, Karl asked Trump about his belief in the possibility of reinstatement before the next election.

Karl cited audio from the interview where Trump said, “I’m not going to explain it to you, Jonathan, because you wouldn’t – you wouldn’t either understand it or write it.”

Karl reported that Trump repeatedly brought up the notion of reinstatement, which caused concern among his inner circle that Trump actually believed he would be able to remove Biden from the White House before the next election.

This conspiracy Trump continued to promote and eventually gave pause to other Trump supporters, such as former Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Alabama), who faced backlash while he ran for a Senate seat after he suggested that Trump supporters move on from the 2020 election.

In an interview earlier this year, Brooks recounted a conversation he had with Trump, in which Trump asked him to publicly declare that he supported the idea of Trump’s reinstatement as president and allowed to return to the White House. Brooks declined and ultimately lost his Senate bid when Trump withdrew his endorsement after Brooks.

When asked if he believed Trump could be reinstated, Brooks said, “I sure hope not, because if he truly believed that, then he was way outside the bounds of reality.”

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who previously held the position of White House communications director under Trump, expressed her astonishment at Karl’s report on ABC’s This Week. “The fact that someone who is the former commander in chief very well could be again, was buying into something so absurd, so patently false, underscores how dangerous Donald Trump is,” she said.

Trump’s rival for the GOP presidential nomination, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida), has made a point of mocking Trump’s numerous verbal gaffes.