Trump's eldest children split on his path forward

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While his adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, are gung-ho, leading the charge for the President to stay in the fight, daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump has emerged as someone looking for a way for the President to save face as he considers his next steps, sources tell CNN.

Differing approaches have emerged amongst the Trump siblings: Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are telling their father to aggressively fight to the end, echoing baseless claims that the election has been rigged and the outcome should change.

Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, meanwhile, are weighing a different political calculus. Ivanka Trump and Kushner would prefer the President concede the race as soon as next week after the Georgia recount has concluded on November 20, whereas Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. would prefer to drag it out until the bitter end.

The couple doesn't believe legal battles will change the election's outcome, but are nevertheless advocating for a more measured approach to let the legal fight and recounts continue to ensure future election integrity while allowing them to appear sensitive to Trump, a source familiar with the situation said.

Ivanka Trump has offered a more calibrated message to her father, asking him whether it was worth damaging his legacy and potentially his businesses to continue his refusal to concede. She is privately realistic about the President's loss, a source told CNN, but she also knows that her entire future - now more than ever - is tied to her father's, and must be handled delicately.

For his part, the President appears to be heeding that advice.

"He knows he's not going to win, but he also knows he holds all the cards right now because he knows that he won 72 million votes and founded a movement," a source familiar with Trump's thinking said.

The source said Trump believes he was never considered a legitimate candidate or President.

"He was investigated and impeached and people tried to destroy him and his family, so why should he rush to concede anything now when Georgia and Arizona still haven't been called, and some people are telling him that they have some legitimate legal recourse in Pennsylvania?" the source said.

When he does finally come to terms with his loss, Trump is being urged to characterize this election as the "last final act of harassment," but that he will take his supporters and his social media following and make clear he isn't going anywhere.

On the last night of the campaign, Eric Trump was telling people aboard Air Force One on the way back from a Michigan rally that he was convinced it would be a Trump blowout.

A key force playing into Ivanka Trump's political calculations: an eye toward her future and her husband Jared Kushner's legacy.

In her time in Washington, Ivanka Trump has gone "Full MAGA," one source said, adopting a more conservative viewpoint in sync with the Trump brand, her success closely intertwined with her father's.

Kushner, another source familiar said, is leaning toward softening the message to prepare for a more graceful exit. Kushner will have to go back to work when the administration concludes, the source said, and there is concern that a bad exit could lead to President-elect Joe Biden's reversal of executive orders that could wipe out what he considers to be his best achievements. But no matter how gracefully Trump exits office, it's unclear that a Biden administration would.

Geraldo Rivera said Friday that President Trump told him he’ll do the “right thing” on the election's results, a comment that comes as Trump has refused to concede after the race was called for President-elect Joe Biden.

In a tweet on Friday, Rivera said he had a phone call with Trump in which the president said he was a "realist" who will do the "right thing" but is waiting to see "what states do in terms of" certification.

Trump's refusal to concede has caused issues for Biden's transition. Emily Murphy, who oversees the General Services Administration (GSA), has refused to acknowledge Biden as president-elect, blocking access to millions of dollars in federal funding for salaries and travel.

And the Office of the Director of National Intelligence isn’t interacting with the Biden campaign, meaning that he's not getting access to presidential intelligence briefings.

Reports on Trump's children make the media look like Soap Opera Digest to me.