After months of denial and delusion, President Donald Trump finally accepted the result of the 2020 president election and pledged to help facilitate a smooth transition of power. After a day of chaos in the Capitol the President posted a video on Twitter in which he doubled down on his baseless claims that electoral reform was needed, before grudgingly accepting that there will be a new administration later in the month.

Trump’s 2020 handover to Biden

Since defeat in the November 3 election that year, Trump spread completely unfounded conspiracy theories about the election result; refused to cooperate with the incoming administration and attacked the democratic process with a series of ridiculous lawsuits. The reluctant acceptance of his defeat came after a pro-Trump mob, which he had personally called upon to take a stand, staged an insurrection in the Capitol.

What did Trump say in his concession video?

As with every other element of his presidency, Trump’s concession speech was far from routine. He began the 160-second video by decrying the violence in Washington that had seen five Americans lose their lives, including one police officer.

“I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem,” he said, before falsely claiming that he had immediately deployed the National Guard, something that state officials contest.

During the video he directly contradicted his rhetoric of the previous day, when he told the assembled ‘Stop the Steal’ rally at the White House that they needed to show more “strength” to “fight” the election result.

After months of denial he finally conceded that a new president would soon be taking office and promised to assist the transition, saying: “A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power."

This was a stark contrast to his speech the previous day, when he told the crowd of Trump supporters: “We will never give up. We will never concede. It will never happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore.”

Trump calls for healing but hints at future plans

During his four years in office the president looked to paint the Democrats as the enemy and caused enormous division in the American political landscape. As his post-election prospects became increasingly bleak he had even begun to turn on long-term loyalists like his Attorney General William Barr; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and, most shockingly, his Vice President Mike Pence.

But having accepted defeat Trump struck a new, even presidential tone in which he called for the country to be reunited after years of division. He said: “This moment calls for healing and reconciliation,” before adding that bringing an end to the coronavirus pandemic would “require all of us working together.”

Gov. Whitmer spoke at the time about Trump admitting that he’s leaving office: “It’s about damn time and had he done this earlier, lives would have been saved … We’ve paid an incredible price as a nation for his inability to see the facts, understand them, and accept them."

Trump 2.0 always in mind

But Trump did make clear that he did not believe that his political career was over, and pledged to continue the Make America Great Again movement. Despite losing fairly comfortably in the 2020 election, Trump still drew over 70 million votes and his support remained largely loyal despite his post-election conduct and embarrassing legal defeats.

He ended the address by telling his supporters: “Our incredible journey is just beginning," having previously suggested that he would like to run again in 2024. At the time few were convinced of him repeating what only Gover Cleveland had done.

By the morning of Wednesday, November 6, nobody would have any doubts.