But other senior aides to Trump are also girding themselves for the president’s fury over the election results. Three sources familiar with the matter said Trump has repeatedly stressed how low of an opinion he has of Biden as a candidate, and has said how deeply embarrassing it would be for him if he managed to lose to him this year.

Aides and close associates who’ve spoken to the president in recent days say that he has consistently argued behind closed doors that he is going to emerge victorious, ignoring much of the available polling data and declining to talk much, if at all, about what would happen if he didn’t. Trump will regularly argue that it doesn’t even make sense that Biden could win, when you look at his crowd sizes in the campaign’s closing weeks versus Biden’s.

“If it were anyone else, I’d call it denial,” said one such associate.

Two Trump administration officials working on foreign policy told The Daily Beast in the past week that they’re convinced the president will lose, and have instead prioritized making it harder for a President Biden to reverse their policy advancements—including with regards to re-entering the Iran nuclear deal.