Thread by @JakeSherman

PLAYBOOK THIS MORNING: Trump lines up losses

TRUMP is throwing an awful lot of weight behind 2 efforts that, if you’re charitable, you can say he is not certain to win, but if you’re realistic, you can definitively declare he is likely to lose in a publicly humiliating fashion.

FIRST, TRUMP says he is going to veto the National Defense Authorization Act -- which has passed every year for 59 years.

Aides and congressional allies have made it clear to TRUMP that his veto is likely to be overridden, and have tried to get him to back off, but he does not at all appear moved by their pleas.

SECOND: THE PRESIDENT is spending his final days in the White House interested in a campaign to pressure members of Congress to join a futile effort to overturn the 2020 election.

At the White House on Monday, his remaining congressional brain trust gathered. In attendance: GOP Reps. MO BROOKS (Ala.), JODY HICE (Ga.), MATT GAETZ (Fla.), LOUIE GOHMERT (Texas), SCOTT PERRY (Pa.), JIM JORDAN (Ohio)

and ANDY BIGGS (Ariz.), and Rep.-elect MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (Ga.). RUDY GIULIANI was there, as well.

GREENE — who was elected a few weeks ago -- tweeted a chart with Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL’S poll numbers, seeming to indicate that his standing improved in Kentucky after a TRUMP tweet.

OF COURSE, despite what the president may think, there are factors in campaigns besides his social media feed. Even so, if the president and the WH think MCCONNELL is going to be moved by this chart, they’ve learned nothing about the Kentucky Republican in the last 4 years.

SEN. JOHN THUNE told CNN’s @mkraju the effort is “going down like a shot dog.” “I just don’t think it makes a lot of sense to put everybody through this when you know what the ultimate outcome is going to be.” Of course, logic may not sit well with this crew.