“I hereby direct every executive department and agency head … to revoke any active security clearances held by the aforementioned individuals,” Trump said in his memorandum on Friday.

Trump’s latest executive action is seen as part of a pattern of reprisal that he has carried out targeting political opponents, including Biden and other former senior White House officials, who traditionally retain their security clearance as a courtesy.

Aside from Biden and Harris, the list of names stripped of their authorisation to see state secrets included Biden’s family members along with former secretary of state Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state and defeated presidential candidate, was also on the list.

In the memorandum sent to agency heads and distributed by the White House communications office, Trump said the named officials should no longer be allowed access to classified material.

“I also direct all executive department and agency heads to revoke unescorted access to secure United States Government facilities from these individuals.”

The Trump-Biden feud

Trump, who continues to falsely claim that Biden schemed to steal the 2020 election, which he lost, has remained furious with his predecessor and lashes out frequently.

In 2021, Biden had revoked the security clearance for Trump, who was then a former president.

Trump was himself investigated for breaching security rules during the period between his first and second term in office, by storing classified White House documents in his Mar-a-Lago resort.

aThe investigation was wound up after Trump returned to office.

Many of the individuals on Trump’s list were high-profile political appointees of his Democratic predecessor, but former Republican lawmaker and vocal Trump critic Liz Cheney is also named.

Fiona Hill, a British-born intelligence analyst who served under both Democrat and Republican administrations, including as an adviser in Trump’s White House, has also been targeted.

She is joined by former colleague Alexander Vindman, a Kyiv-born retired senior officer in the US Army who fell foul of Trump after expressing concerns about White House contacts with Russia.

Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer in Washington who represents whistleblowers, and Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican lawmaker who is a sharp Trump critic, were also included in the list.

As president of the Senate, on Monday she will stand at the House Speaker’s rostrum to lead the counting of Electoral College votes, officially cementing her rival’s triumph two weeks before he returns to the White House.

The circumstances are painful and awkward for a candidate who decried her opponent as an urgent threat to American democracy, but Harris aides insist she will conduct her constitutional and legal duty with seriousness and grace.

It is not the first time a losing candidate will lead the joint session of Congress to count their opponent’s presidential electors – Al Gore endured the indignity in 2001 and Richard Nixon in 1961.

But it’s a fitting coda to an improbable election that saw Harris elevated from a back-up to the nation’s oldest president to the Democratic standard bearer – whose fleeting campaign provided a jolt of hope to her party before a crushing loss exposed deep internal faultlines.

Harris and her team are now deliberating her second act, and weighing whether it includes another run for the White House in 2028 or pursuing a bid for the governor’s mansion in her home state of California.

While recent Democratic candidates who lost elections – Al Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton – have decided against seeking the presidency again, aides, allies and donors argue that the groundswell of support Harris captured in her unsuccessful bid and the unusual circumstances of her condensed campaign proves there’s still scope for her to seek the Oval Office.

They even point to Donald Trump’s own circuitous political path – the former and future president’s bookend wins in 2016 and 2024, despite losing as the incumbent in 2020.

But while many Democrats do not blame Harris for Trump’s win, some – stung by a bruising loss that has called the party’s strategy into question – are deeply sceptical of giving her another shot at the White House. A host of Democratic governors who coalesced behind the vice-president in 2024 but have ambitions of their own are seen by some strategists as fresher candidates with a much better chance of winning.

aaHarris herself is said to be in no rush to make any decisions, telling advisers and supporters she is open to all the possibilities that await her after Inauguration Day on 20 January.

She is assessing the last few months, which saw her launch an entirely new White House campaign, vet a running-mate, lead a party convention and barnstorm the country in just 107 days. And aides point out that she remains the US vice-president, at least for another two weeks.

“She has a decision to make and you can’t make it when you’re still on the treadmill. It may have slowed down – but she’s on the treadmill until 20 January,” said Donna Brazile, a close Harris ally who advised the campaign.

“You can’t put anyone in a box. We didn’t put Al Gore in a box and it was obvious the country was very divided after the 2000 election,” said Brazile, who ran Gore’s campaign against George W Bush and pointed to his second life as an environmental activist. “All options are on the table because there’s an appetite for change and I do believe that she can represent that change in the future.”

But the nagging question that shadows any potential 2028 run is whether the 60-year-old can separate herself from Joe Biden – something she failed to do in the election campaign.

Her allies in the party say that Biden’s choice to seek re-election despite worries about his age, only then to ultimately drop out of the race with months to go, doomed her candidacy.

Though Trump swept all seven battleground states and is the first Republican in 20 years to win the popular vote, his margin of victory was relatively narrow while Harris still won 75 million votes, an outcome her supporters argue can’t be ignored as a currently faceless Democratic party rebuilds over the next four years.

On the other side, those close to Biden remain convinced he could have defeated Trump again, despite surveys showing he had been bleeding support from key Democratic voting blocs.

They point out that Harris fell short where the president didn’t in 2020, underperforming with core Democratic groups like black and Latino voters. Critics continue to bring up her 2019 campaign to become the Democratic presidential nominee, which sputtered out in less than a year.

“People forget that had there been a real primary [in 2024], she never would have been the nominee. Everyone knows that,” said one former Biden adviser.

The adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, applauded Harris for reviving the Democratic base and helping key congressional races, but said Trump’s campaign successfully undercut her on critical campaign issues including the economy and the border.

Members of Trump’s team, however, including his chief pollster, have acknowledged that Harris performed stronger as a candidate than Biden on certain issues like the economy among voters.

Yet there’s no escaping that any Democratic primary contest for 2028 would be a tough fight, with rising stars like Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and California Governor Gavin Newsom already weighing presidential runs.

Some Democrats say that Harris would nonetheless start ahead of the pack, with national name recognition, a much-coveted mailing list and a deep bench of volunteers.

“What state party would not want her to come help them set the table for the 2026 midterm elections?” Brazile said. “She’s going to have plenty opportunities not only to rebuild, but to strengthen the coalition that came together to support her in 2024.”

Others have suggested she could step out of the political arena entirely, running a foundation or establishing an institute of politics at her alma mater, Howard University, the Washington-based historically black college where she held her election night party.

The former top state prosecutor could also be a contender for secretary of state or attorney general in a future Democratic administration. And she’ll need to decide if she wants to write another book.

For all of her options, Harris has told aides, she wants to remain visible and be seen as a leader in the party. One adviser suggested that she could exist outside the domestic political fray, taking on a more global role on an issue that matters to her, but that’s a difficult perch without a platform as large as the vice-presidency.

In the waning days of the Biden-Harris administration, she plans to embark on an international trip to multiple regions, according to a source familiar with the plans, signalling her desire to maintain a role on the world stage and build a legacy beyond being Biden’s number two.

For Harris and her team, the weeks since the election have been humbling, a mix of grief and resolve. Several aides described the three-month sprint that began when Biden dropped out as having begun with the campaign “digging out of a hole” and ending with their candidate more popular than when she began, even if she didn’t win.

“There’s a sense of peace knowing that given the hand we were dealt, we ran through the tape,” said one senior aide.

Following the election, Harris and her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, spent a week in Hawaii with a small group of aides to relax and discuss her future.

During a staff holiday party at her official residence before Christmas, Harris recounted election night and how she delivered a pep talk to her family as the results became clear.

“We are not having a pity party!” she told the crowd of her reaction that night.

Advisers and allies say she is still processing what happened, and wants to wait and see how the new administration unfolds in January before staking out any position, let alone seeking to become the face of any so-called Trump “resistance”.

Democrats have found the resistance movement that took off among liberals in the wake of his 2016 win no longer resonates in today’s political climate, where the Republican has proven that his message and style appeals to a huge cross-section of Americans.

They have adopted a more conciliatory approach in confronting the incoming president’s agenda. As several Democrats put it: “What resistance?”

Though she’s kept a relatively low profile since her loss, Harris provided a glimpse of her mindset at an event for students at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland in December.

“The movements for civil rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights, the United States of America itself, would never have come to be if people had given up their cause after a court case, or a battle, or an election did not go their way,” she said.

“We must stay in the fight,” she added, a refrain she has repeated since her 2016 Senate win. “Everyone of us.”

What that means is less clear. For some donors and supporters, staying “in the fight” could translate to a run for California governor in 2026, when a term-limited Gavin Newsom will step down and potentially pursue his own White House ambitions. The job, leading the world’s fifth-largest economy, would also put Harris in direct conflict with Trump, who has regularly assailed the state for its left-leaning policies.

But governing a major state is no small feat, and would derail any presidential run, as she would be sworn into office about the same time she would need to launch a national campaign.

Those who have spoken to Harris said she remains undecided about the governor’s race, which some allies have described as a potential “capstone” to her career.

She has won statewide office three times as California’s attorney general and later as a US senator. But a gubernatorial win would give her another historic honour – becoming the nation’s first black female governor.

Still, some allies acknowledge it would be difficult to transition from being inside a 20-car motorcade and having a seat across the table from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the governor’s mansion.

The private sector is another option.

“For women at other levels of office, when they lose an election, sometimes options are not as available to them compared to men, who get a soft landing at a law firm or insurance business, and it gives them a place to take a beat, make some money and then make decisions about what’s next,” said Debbie Walsh, director for the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem for Kamala Harris. I think doors will open for her if she wants to open them.”

But for Harris, who has been in elected office for two decades, and worked as a public prosecutor before that, an afterlife as governor may be the most fitting option.

“When you’ve had one client – the people – for the entirety of your career,” said one former adviser, “where do you go from here?”

The date also marks the fourth anniversary of a riot at the US Capitol, when Trump’s supporters tried to thwart the certification of Democratic President Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020. Normally the occasion is a mere formality.

Heavy security is in place in Washington DC, and Biden has vowed there will be no repeat of the violence on 6 January 2021 – which led to several deaths.

As lawmakers meet in Washington DC, heavy snow forecast for the American capital could prove disruptive.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has vowed to go ahead with the certification at 13:00 EST (18:00 GMT) in spite of the weather, telling Fox News: “Whether we’re in a blizzard or not, we’re going to be in that chamber making sure this is done.”

As the current vice-president, Harris is required by the US Constitution to officially preside over the certification of the result, after Trump beat her in the nationwide poll on 5 November.

Trump won all seven of the country’s swing states, helping him to victory in the electoral college, the mechanism that decides who takes the presidency. It will be Harris’s job on Monday to read out the number of electoral college votes won by each candidate.

Trump’s second term will begin after he is inaugurated on 20 January. For the first time since 2017, the president’s party will also enjoy majorities in both chambers of Congress, albeit slender ones.

Trump’s win marked a stunning political comeback from his electoral defeat in 2020, and a criminal conviction in 2024 – a first for a current or former US president.

Amid the dramatic recent presidential campaign, Trump also survived a bullet grazing his ear when a gunman opened fire at one of his rallies in Pennsylvania.

While away from the White House, he has faced a slew of legal cases against him – including over his attempts to overturn the 2020 result, which he continues to dispute.

Following his defeat that year, Trump and his allies made baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud – claiming the election had been stolen from them.

In a speech in Washington DC on certification day, 6 January 2021, Trump told a crowd to “fight like hell” but also asked them to “peacefully” make their voices heard.

He also attempted to pressurise his own vice-president, Mike Pence, to reject the election result – a call that Pence rejected.

Rioters went on to smash through barricades and ransack the Capitol building before Trump ultimately intervened by telling them to go home. Several deaths were blamed on the violence.

Trump’s pledges after returning to office include pardoning people convicted of offences over the attack. He says many of them are “wrongfully imprisoned”, though has acknowledged that “a couple of them, probably they got out of control”.

Conversely, Biden has called on Americans never to forget what happened.

“We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it,” Biden wrote in the Washington Post over the weekend.

For Trump’s Republican Party, the new Senate Majority Leader John Thune has signalled a desire to move on, telling the BBC’s US partner CBS News: “You can’t be looking in the rearview mirror.”