The plan is to continue creating escalating chaos, and grasp whatever advantage is available in the aftermath while people who care about things like laws and constitutions throw their hands on the air and declare their shock and dismay. This is how autocrats work. Actually responding effectively and shutting this shit down is how you keep a constitutional government from sliding directly into an autocracy. Hemming and hawing about did he or didn't he mean to be smart enough to circumvent the constitution, while the situation continues to escalate, is how you end up in, say, Pinochet's Chile.
Remember Trump is already commander in chief, so has power 'by default.' He just needs to create a situation where that status quo remains, either by creating a situation whereby the right people are willing to disregard the election results /or/ the constitution directly.
Actually, to continue, this is hacker news! So let's use an appropriate software analogy. Think of it as fuzzing the interface of constitutional democracy. You can throw chaos at it until you find an exploit.
Remember Trump is already commander in chief, so has power 'by default.' He just needs to create a situation where that status quo remains, either by creating a situation whereby the right people are willing to disregard the election results /or/ the constitution directly.