Politics: President Trump stays mostly out of view after election but is working, taking steps to, in part, poke Biden

WASHINGTON – The lame duck is stirring.

President Donald Trump has stayed mostly out of public view in the two weeks since his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. On nine of the 14 days since the Nov. 3 election, his daily schedule has been summed up in a single sentence: “The president has no public events scheduled" – the longest he has been out of public view since taking office in January 2017.  

Behind the scenes, however, Trump has occupied himself with the work of the presidency.

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

President Trump's defeat may give Supreme Court a rest from personal, policy lawsuits

Many cases tied to Trump's policies or personal entanglements are likely to become moot or, at least, undeserving of the Supreme Court's attention.Even in the autumn of his presidency, little has changed. The administration came before the justices the week after Election Day in hopes of dismantling the Affordable Care Act, perhaps the most celebrated achievement of his predecessor. Later this month, it will defend its plan to exclude noncitizens from the census count used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives.

While still protesting the election results, Trump has been holding meetings to consider ordering a military strike against Iran, cutting the number of military troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, selling oil leases in the Alaskan wilderness, reducing government regulations and taking other actions designed in part to poke President-elect Biden. He's also fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and top Pentagon leaders and Homeland Security cyber chief Christopher Krebs, who called the election secure. He is considering parting ways with FBI Director Chris Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel.

© Evan Vucci, AP Images President Donald Trump is pictured during an event on Operation Warp Speed at the White House.

Trump spends most of his days behind closed doors – he has made only two public statements since his angry Election Night speech at the White House – watching cable news and rage tweeting about Biden. He follows television news accounts of the election dispute, aides said, but is also tending the jobs at hand.

Sen. Lindsey Graham faces ethics complaint over call to top election official in Georgia about ballots

Sen. Lindsey Graham was the target of an ethics complaint after his phone call with an election official in Georgia over how the state counts ballots. Your browser does not support this video Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger accused Graham earlier this week of pressuring him to find ways to exclude or invalidate legally cast absentee ballots and reverse Trump’s loss in the state, an accusation the South Carolina Republican called "ridiculous." Graham said he had also spoken with Arizona's Republican Gov.

“It’s not really changed operationally,” said one official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Trump's actions in private.

In many respects, historians say, Trump's lame duck actions are in line with what his predecessors did in the final weeks of their presidency.

Election fallout: Latino voters who fled dictatorships fear election was stolen from President Trump

Trump holds meetings in the Oval Office, aides said, and often acts like he still expects a second term. He shuttles between the second-floor residence at the White House and the Oval Office in the West Wing, speaking with aides and friends on his ever-present phone (and tweeting).

He has spoken to staffers about COVID vaccines and holds regular meetings with aides, particularly his national security staff. He met with national security aides on the Afghanistan and Iraq drawdown plans announced Tuesday – an unusual event in that Trump did not appear in person to announce the withdrawal and did not issue any kind of written statement.

'That's his first love': Biden has more foreign policy experience than his 4 predecessors

The president-elect already knows many of the players on the world stage – from Vladimir Putin to Angela Merkel to Benjamin Netanyahu.“I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy,” Bush told reporters at a joint news conference, in what turned out to be an embarrassing misconception. “I was able to get a sense of his soul.

Presidents' busy final days in office

Other presidents who lost their bids for re-election or were nearing the end of their second terms have discovered that the responsibilities of the presidency don’t disappear just because they’re about to leave office.

In that sense, Trump is no different than his predecessors, said Allan J. Lichtman, distinguished professor of history at American University in Washington.

Most of the initiatives Trump has pursued since the election have been behind the scenes, “and we don’t know what’s going to become of them,” Lichtman said.

So far, however, Trump hasn't taken any policy actions that are fundamentally different than what his predecessors did during their lame duck period, Lichtman said.

Election fight: '100 percent dead': Court ruling could torpedo some lawsuits challenging Trump's loss

Previous lame-duck presidents have tried to use the period between the election and their successor’s inauguration to “go big” or pursue policies that will burnish their legacy, said Ross Baker, a distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers University–New Brunswick.

Judge dismisses last election-related case pending in Arizona

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge tossed out a lawsuit on Friday, dismissing the last election-related case pending in Arizona. Your browser does not support this video © Getty Images Legal claim against Tucson police settled. Judge Margaret Mahoney did not elaborate on her reasoning for throwing out the case at the end of the hearing but said she would issue an order in writing. Whatever Mahoney decided, the case — involving only two ballots — would not have changed the outcome of the election.Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

Jimmy Carter, who lost his 1980 re-election bid to Ronald Reagan, found his transition consumed with negotiations to return American hostages in Iran.

President George H.W. Bush, who lost to Bill Clinton in 1992, had an active lame duck period. He authorized a military action in Somalia, signed an arms treaty with Russia, and pardoned aides who had been ensnared in the Iran-Contra scandal. 

Even the nation’s first one-term president, John Adams, appointed a series of “midnight judges” to the federal bench during his last days in office. Adams saw the appointments as a way to preserve Federalist influence in the federal government during the tenure of his successor, Thomas Jefferson.

Refusal to transition

Trump, however, appears to be taking a different approach.

“It has been Trump’s decision to go kind of small – and go secret, almost,” Baker said.

Baker said Trump has been “incapacitated” by his loss to Biden and his refusal to accept the election results. “That’s why they are doing so many things under the radar,” he said.

Historian Joanne Freeman said Trump’s refusal to accept defeat and the roadblocks to Biden’s transition are unprecedented.

“Other presidents – and their party – sometimes did some last-minute damage to stack the deck against an incoming president and the opposing party,” she said. But, “not on the scale of what seems to be shaping up now, given the fact that we’re in the middle of a pandemic.”

Election 2020 live updates: Trump legal team distances itself from lawyer Sidney Powell, Biden taps Blinken as secretary of state

Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis distanced themselves from Trump team lawyer Sidney Powell. Joe Biden will tap Antony Blinken as secretary of state.Be sure to refresh this page often to get the latest information on the election and the transition.

Staffing up: Joe Biden names 9 top White House appointees, including Rep. Cedric Richmond and campaign manager O'Malley Dillon

Pardons to come?

Back at the White House, Trump has a host of other items on his to-do list for his final weeks in office.

He is considering issuing pardons for former aides convicted in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

One of his executive actions will be rolled out next week. He’s scheduled to pardon this year’s Thanksgiving turkey on Tuesday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Trump stays mostly out of view after election but is working, taking steps to, in part, poke Biden