It was a victory celebration without a victory. Empty wine glasses littered a table in the East Room of the White House. Pizza boxes and cans of White Claw hard seltzer abounded elsewhere in the complex. As Election Day came and went without a verdict in the presidential race, President Donald Trump grew agitated. At 2.21 am, the president took the stage before a well-lubricated crowd in the East Room and falsely claimed he had won. He vowed to take his case to the Supreme Court.

'We're winning everything'

"We were getting ready for a big celebration," Trump said. "We were winning everything and all of the sudden it was just called off." "We will win this and as far as I'm concerned we already have won it." That was not true.