Aides and advisers to President Trump believe he has accepted that he is unlikely to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory and will begin to plot life after the White House, including a 2024 run, once his campaign had exhausted all its lawsuits.

Multiple sources said it was vital to highlight failures in the electoral system in order to ensure its integrity in the future but that the president and his team understood that the overall result was unlikely to change.

Meanwhile, speculation about a 2024 run has become something that the president now talks about openly with visitors to the Oval Office, said a source close to the White House.

“The president has every legal right to bring whatever cases he has to the courts and follow the legal path, which is what you are supposed to do if you have an issue with an election,” the person said.

“I suspect that once those cases are heard and adjudicated, and once we get through the Georgia recount, that the president will begin the public off-ramp.”

Trump has broken with convention, and so far, he has refused to concede the election to Biden, who was projected to be the winner by multiple media organizations on Saturday.

Instead, he has kept up a steady stream of Twitter commentary, highlighting allegations of what he claims are examples of election malpractice.

“You are looking at BALLOTS! Is this what our Country has come to?” asked Trump, posting a video that supporters claimed showed ballot workers collecting votes after the cut-off date – but which actually showed the transfer of papers from boxes to bags within the time limit and in accordance with best practice.

Opponents have claimed his approach threatens an illegal grab, while his campaign says that he has always promised to accept the result of a free and fair campaign.

Some advisers continue to believe that challenges in battleground states and a recount in Georgia will shift results in the president’s favor.

But a more skeptical source close to the White House said that the end of the recount on Nov. 20 would be taken as the “beginning of the end” and the start of a transition.

“Not so much a concession as a grudging acknowledgment of a President Biden,” said the figure.

Instead, the legal and PR push is really about engaging Trump’s base, allowing the president to maintain that Biden’s win is illegitimate, keeping up pressure ahead of crucial runoffs in Georgia that could determine control of the Senate, and preparing for life after the White House in terms of another run in 2024.

Sam Nunberg, whose experience at the heart of the 2016 campaign means he has frequently been able to predict Trump’s next move, said that the president would have won the election but for the impact of COVID-19 – including, among other things, the widespread use of mail-in ballots.

“Was there outright fraud or incompetence? There were certainly errors. This has long-term ramifications for the Republican Party that need to be fixed,” he said.

“What is the ultimate endgame? Donald Trump’s reelection in 2024.”

Campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh declined to comment on a future run.

“More than 72 million Americans voted for President Trump, and they deserve to know that the election was fair and secure and so does everyone who voted for Joe Biden,” he said. “The president has always said he would accept the results of a free and fair election. The goal is to make sure legal votes are counted and illegal votes are discarded, not only for this election, but for every election in the future.”