United States: When Vice President Harris attempted to connect with President Trump for a formal concession following last year’s contentious election, her team encountered an unexpected glitch. As chronicled by political scribes Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf in “2024”, a mosaic drawn from over 350 interviews, even something as simple as a phone line proved elusive.
Trump, never one to miss a quip, deadpanned, “Phone service isn’t what it once was.” The moment turned more farcical when staffers resorted to sandwiching two phones together, creating an impromptu speaker setup so the rivals could finally converse. Trump, ever the showman, remarked: “You’re a tough cookie.”
What sets “2024” apart is not just the access—though that is ample—but the pedigree of its authors. Veterans of the Washington Post’s political war room, Dawsey has since migrated to the Wall Street Journal, while Pager anchors coverage at the New York Times.
The book notes that Trump extended a rare gesture of praise, not toward Harris’s campaign apparatus, but toward her spouse, Douglas Emhoff. Still, he acknowledged that her challenge was no easy hurdle, admitting she made him “work for it,” according to AXIOS.
Even Harris’s inner circle, typically guarded, described Trump as unexpectedly civil. Harris, though polished and direct, maintained a cool tone. Though tempted to mention his previous refusal to concede in 2020, she sidestepped that impulse. Instead, she offered a thin but earnest hope: that he would govern with unity in mind.
President Biden, in contrast, took the high road, commending Trump and extending an olive branch in the form of a White House invitation. The irony wasn’t lost—Trump had withheld that same courtesy four years earlier. This time, however, he accepted with grace.
“In another timeline,” Trump mused to Biden, “we’d hit the green together.”
Months later, Pager managed to get Biden on the line, dialing him on March 25, barely two months after Biden had vacated office. Trump, known to answer unsolicited calls from reporters, had proven unpredictable—but it worked with Biden just this once.
The authors write that Biden agreed to speak for the book the very next day. He answered, hurried and breathless, apologizing that he was rushing for a train. When asked for his outlook on Trump’s encore presidency, Biden didn’t mince words. “I don’t see anything he’s done that’s remotely useful,” he said. Pressed on whether stepping away from the race brought regret, he shot back, “No. Not now. I don’t stew over what’s behind me.” Then, with abrupt finality, he disconnected, as reported by AXIOS.
What followed was chaos. Biden’s aides—unnerved by the surprise call—bombarded Pager with irate messages and frantic calls. After Biden’s second chat, the lines went cold. Within 48 hours, the number Pager had used yielded only a cryptic message from Verizon: “The number you dialed has been changed, disconnected, or is no longer in service.”
And then, one final flash of surrealism—at President Carter’s funeral, on the cusp of Trump’s return to power, he found himself seated beside Barack Obama. Without skipping a beat, Trump leaned in and extended an invitation: a round of golf, sweetened by tales of his lavish international courses.
