By Glynn Wilson –

Outgoing President Donald J. Trump didn’t exactly concede to losing the election on Twitter or TV on Monday, but he bowed to a growing wave of public pressure from American business leaders, national security officials and some Republicans and effectively surrendered his three-week protest of the election results by agreeing to allow the General Services Administration to work with the incoming Joe Biden administration in a peaceful transfer of power.

Trump finally went along by authorizing the federal government to initiate contact with and work together with the Biden-Harris transition team to tap into public funds, receive security briefings and gain access to federal agencies.

It wasn’t exactly a dramatic capitulation or Trump admitting to being a loser, but it seemed to bring to an end what some national news outlets are calling “an extraordinary 16-day standoff” since the Biden-Harris ticket was declared the winner on Nov. 7.

Related: Trump is A Loser – Biden is President-Elect

“By continuing to subvert the vote and delay the transition, Trump risked becoming isolated within his own party as a growing chorus of Republican officials recognized Biden as president-elect following a succession of defeats in courts by the Trump campaign,” according to The Washington Post.

Trump’s concession move came Monday after the Michigan Board of State Canvassers certified Biden’s win there after a hint of a controversy with some Republicans saying they may not go along with certifying the results. In the end even a Republican on the board voted to certify Biden as the winner. That seemed to be the end of it.

Many business leaders and national security experts, including Republicans, urged Trump to accept the result since refusing to begin the transition was endangering national security, the economy and the coronavirus pandemic response.

Trump publicly yielded by writing Monday night on Twitter that he had agreed to support the Biden transition “in the best interest of our country.”

Yet the president also vowed to continue his push to overturn the results, adding, “Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good … fight, and I believe we will prevail!”

A senior Trump campaign adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to The Post to be candid, said Monday night: “He basically just conceded. That’s as close to a concession as you will probably get.”

To bring closure, some of Trump’s advisers said they were encouraging him to deliver a speech in which he does not concede but talks about his accomplishments in office and commits to a transfer of power.

“Trump only reluctantly agreed to let the transition begin as criticism intensified in recent days of his chaotic legal strategy, his failure to produce evidence of widespread voter fraud and his reliance on misinformation and debunked conspiracy theories,” according to The Post.

A turning point was Thursday’s news conference by Trump lawyers Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sidney Powell alleging without any evidence that there was a coordinated plot with roots in Venezuela to rig the election in Biden’s favor.

Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s longtime personal attorneys, and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone were among those who helped persuade Trump to commit to the transition, officials and advisers said.

Trump was described as angry about the situation, particularly over comments Blackstone Chairman Stephen Schwarzman, one of the president’s closest allies in the business community, made to Axios acknowledging that the election outcome was “very certain” and that Biden had won and the country should move on.

Trump called political advisers Monday to say he had doubts about the GSA initiating the transition, to inquire about whether he could block certification of the Michigan result, and to express reluctance to travel to Georgia to campaign for the two Republican senators facing runoff elections, according to officials and advisers quoted by The Post.

Despite Trump’s resistance, officials throughout his administration were planning to coordinate directly with counterparts on the Biden team starting Tuesday, as part of the standard transition process that takes place between administrations.

Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told other officials Monday evening it was time to begin the transition, two administration officials said.

This comes after a pileup of political and legal losses in recent days appeared to have triggered a shift among national Republican officials, who had largely been silent as Trump has waged an attack on the November vote and made baseless accusations of fraud.

National security luminaries, including former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge, directed particularly sharp language at the president, calling on “Republican leaders — especially those in Congress — to publicly demand that President Trump cease his anti-democratic assault on the integrity of the presidential election.”

On Monday, four more Republican senators, Rob Portman of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, added their voices to those who have acknowledged that Biden appeared to have won and said he should immediately begin receiving briefings related to national security and the coronavirus pandemic.

“When you are in public life, people remember the last thing you do,” Alexander said.

In Michigan, a Republican member of the canvassing board broke from his party to certify the vote in that state, stressing that he was following the law.

The Trump campaign suffered yet another legal defeat on Monday as well, with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court refusing to toss thousands of ballots in Philadelphia and the Pittsburgh area that had technical errors on their outer envelopes but showed no evidence of fraud.

The opinion encapsulated the state of Trump’s efforts in court to overturn the election result, as his legal team has sought to block certification of Biden’s victories in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania — yet has offered no evidence of widespread fraud to justify such drastic action.

On Monday, Trump’s campaign filed an emergency motion in federal appeals court in yet another case in Pennsylvania to temporarily block certification there. The move came after a lower-court judge had rejected the campaign’s arguments on Saturday in a withering opinion, expressing disbelief that the Trump campaign would seek to disenfranchise millions of Pennsylvanians with no hard evidence of fraud or irregularities.

Meanwhile, in Arizona on Monday, Mohave County became the last county to canvass its vote, putting the state on an apparent glide path to certification on Nov. 30 — though Trump allies have said more challenges could be coming. Biden won the state by about 10,400 votes, according to unofficial results.

In Nevada, the state Supreme Court was scheduled to canvass the statewide vote Tuesday, with Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) expected to quickly announce the winner thereafter. The Trump campaign has filed what’s known as an election “contest” asking a state judge to overturn Biden’s victory or annul the election, which would mean no electoral college votes would be awarded. Biden’s unofficial margin currently stands at about 34,000 votes. The campaign has lost all previous efforts to delay the count.

In Wisconsin and Georgia, the president’s efforts to reverse results focused on recounts, even though officials in both states said there was virtually no chance the outcomes would change. The recount in Wisconsin, which Trump requested in only its two largest counties, began Friday, while Georgia was set to start its recount on Tuesday — the second in the state since Election Day.

In Michigan, the vote of the Board of State Canvassers effectively awarded the state’s 16 electoral votes to Biden, who defeated Trump with a margin of more than 154,000 votes. Three out of the four board members — including one Republican — voted for certification, capping a dramatic political dispute that had roiled the state.

In the end, it appears that the American people can now safely breath a collective sigh of relief that the chaotic rule of reality TV star Donald Trump will be coming to an end on Jan. 20, 2021.