After losing the 2020 election, advisors and family are urging Donald Trump to concede and leave the White House, but the incumbent President has continued to throw doubt on whether he will.
Americans took to voting booths across the United States on Wednesday (NZ time) to elect their next President.
On Sunday, four days after a closely contested battle for the swing states, Biden won Pennsylvania and gained the majority of electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
Generally, once the winner becomes clear, the loser concedes but White House officials reportedly do not expect Trump to.
He may never accept this reality, one advisor told CNN.
"He has no concession speech ready and no intention of recognising Joe Biden's presidency," a Republican source told the Daily Mail.
Trump, who was out playing golf when the news of Biden's victory came in, has instead launched a campaign of legal action and accused the Democrats of "trying to steal an election" through election fraud.
"The simple fact is this election is far from over," Trump insisted in a statement released while he was still on the course, the Guardian reported.
"Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor."
But members of his family have reportedly joined the growing number of people in Trump's inner circle, urging him to accept the loss.
On Monday, sources told CNN his wife Melania told him privately she thought it was time to accept defeat.
"She has offered it, as she often does," the source said.
The news comes after Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner approached him about conceding the election, two sources told CNN on Saturday.
What happens if he doesn't concede?
After the winner of the US election becomes clear, the losing party traditionally concedes and phones their opponent to say "It's yours, good luck", before giving a public concession speech the following day.
According to CNN, the concession call began in 1896 when Democrat William Jennings Bryan sent Republican William McKinley a telegram that said: "I hasten to extend my congratulations. We have submitted the issue to the American people and their will is law".
In 2016 Hillary Clinton called Trump on election night to congratulate him, and later told Howard Stern: "He was more shocked than me I think".
Concessions generally adhere to a specific formula: the loser congratulates the winner, calls for unity, and tells supporters that they should accept the results.
But, while conceding is the norm, it is not a requirement.
Quartz news summed it up as: "Trump refusing to make that call is sort of like an athlete refusing to shake hands at the end of a game: poor form, but otherwise inconsequential".
What happens if he doesn't leave the White House?
Commentators think it is unlikely Trump will barricade himself in the White House and refuse to leave if his attempts to change the election's outcome fail.
A congressional Republican source told Reuters they think it would make it "impossible" to run for the Presidency again in 2024 if he is "seen as a sore loser".
But if he does refuse to leave the White House, Michael Steele, a former Republican National Committee chairman told the Boston Globe he'd likely be kicked out.
"I think we would have that Nixonian moment where a leadership team would travel to the White House to declare, 'Mr President, it is over,'" Steele said.
"If you've got a president who's chained himself to the Resolute Desk, the new president would say, 'Would you go inside and get him out please?'"
A former official involved in the transition process between former President Barack Obama and Trump told Newsweek the Secret Service would escort him off.
"They would treat him like any old man who'd wandered on the property."
The Biden campaign has already addressed the possibility of Trump refusing to leave.
"The United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House," they said in a statement.
