My feelings on this topic are volatile and made harder by the way covid is moving though my community, but my take after a few days goes something like this:
Trump knows he’s lost. He’s dragging things out as an act of theater for those who love him... like he’s fighting for them until the very end. Those supporters will reward him and continue giving money to “stop the steal” and this rage which he so expertly stokes will help them drive turnout in the Georgia runoffs in January.
Keeping the embers of that rage hot also allows these individuals who dismiss all facts as fake news to be controlled by Trump and his allies for whatever other purposes they may wind up deeming helpful or fruitful to them later.
As a possible side benefit, this obvious erosion of trust in the Democratic process itself that Trump keeps amplifying may inspire Russian oligarchs to thank him later by helping payoff or forgive his existing debts to them... he’s likely to gain lots of new friends offering him money in exchange for state secrets and insider information about US methods and sources, too.
Republicans mostly know he’s leaving as well, but see no political benefit to themselves for pushing him out of the chair or speaking out... so they are silent and spineless. They can’t risk being considered anti-Trump by the base so waffle on about the right of candidates to challenge issues in the voting process and keep prattling about this all being normal... which it’s really not.
Unless they’re already retired or about to retire from politics, they can’t afford to anger the base they’ve been enraging for over a decade if they hope to have any chance at a political career in the future of what is now Trumps Republican Party.
... but Trump will leave and he will likely start a new “news” network farther to the right of even Fox... propaganda undiluted and constrained will be piped into the fertile minds of willing and thirsty audiences. After all, his supporters are already lumping in Fox News with the rest of mainstream media and calling them a bunch of traitorous turncoats for simple things like calling the state or Arizona for Biden.
They’re heeding the call of extreme right personalities and fleeing platforms Twitter and Facebook instead for far right “hate and bullshit are a-okay here!!” platforms like Parlor, and the information bubble is just getting thicker and more immune from piercing.
Trump wants a larger share of the control of that walled off information ecosystem and more influence on this hardening bubble, and by refusing to acknowledge his loss to Biden he helps to further enable that. It helps keep him in the headlines, keeps people questioning news that doesn’t agree with their preferences, keeps them angry and donating money and showing up to vote, but it’s all just for show... catnip for the media... much like his recent leadership changes around national defense and justice. He knew it would deflect news attention away from him being a loser.
I need to tighten up these thoughts a bit, but believe the outline above is pretty close to accurate.