The OP clearly asks what do we think he would do, so I took you to mean starting a war with China was one of those things possible from him. If you don’t think he would do that, then I wouldn’t question your rationality, so I apologize for that.
As for this not being about him staying in office, that’s why I added the parenthetical about what it’s supposed to do for him. And for the record, due to the same cowardice that I’ve mentioned before from Trump, I personally don’t seeing him throwing a tantrum and then following it up with actual destructive behavior. Time will of course tell. But just throwing a tantrum? On that we certainly agree.
I think we all (myself included) are meandering between speculation about what he’ll do to hang on and wrest power, and what he might do assuming he is forced to accept that he is on his way out.
One thing I fully expect him to do on his way out is to try to enrich himself and then set up an escape route for him and his family. Maybe it was on another thread (forgot now) but I think I floated the possibility that Trump could pardon himself and then relocate to the Middle East. He has to find a way to somehow maintain his value, though. That’s his problem. He has to be worth the trouble of housing him.
One thing that I don’t expect him to do is to make it easier for a real transition of power to take place. I wonder if how much help a president Biden would actually get in that regard. It would potentially be an opportune time for actors hostile to the US (Russia and others) to make a move, whatever that move is.
Not sure the Easter Rising is a suitable comparator. The leaders - or at least Patrick Pearse - quite consciously took the risk of martyrdom, in the hope that their deaths would shift the balance of opinion in Ireland towards full independence. Which (thanks to the less-than-subtle - but in the context of 1916 entirely comprehensible - clumsiness of the British authorities) is what happened in the election of 1918. It’s one of history’s what-ifs to wonder how different Ireland today might be had the rising been called off, as some tried to do, but probably not for a Brit like me to speculate on!
(Yes, I’m kinda conceited for replying to my own post, but y’all kinda figured me out already a while ago)
Anyway…
Following up on that thought, what happens if Trump loses, is ultimately forced to accept his defeat, but then secretly works out a deal that allows him to say in Russia or perhaps a Russia-friendly state.
In the months that follow his loss, between November and January, when he’s supposed to be helping with a transition, what if Trump and his inner circle instead refuse to cooperate? I assume that some people in his orbit would defy Trump and help Biden anyway, and perhaps this fear isn’t well grounded considering that Biden’s team can reach out to assistant directors and people within the bureaucracy.
But, what if some of the more senior people on Trump’s team, including Trump himself, have private ‘classified’ conversations with Putin and his associates and essentially give away secrets? Again, the president can do this with virtual impunity because…he’s the president…and stuff. In short, I guess what I’m getting at is, Trump’s inner circle loses, but they get approached by Russian oligarchs or even Putin himself with offers of cash and places to live in Russia (somewhat similar to Edward Snowden) in exchange for ‘giving away the store’ in terms of national security. How likely is that outcome?
I think Biden’s very first presidential action, at 12:01 after noon on inauguration day, should be to order Trump’s passport suspended, and all his family too.
. . . and post notices on all the tenants’ doors (commercial and residential) in Trump Tower and all his other properties in the U.S. that beginning immediately and until further notice, all rent is to be paid to the U. S. Treasury.
(Actually, I was thinking, suspend their passports to keep them from leaving the country, if they haven’t left already, so they can be apprehended when the arrest warrants start issuing.)
Why do you think he would start doing things legally at this very late stage in the game? There are enough Trumpettes in the right places to get him safely out of the country. The only question is whether he will take the family with him now that they are no longer useful to him.
Well, Biden’s gotta do whatever he thinks is best about Trump, but he can only start doing it once he’s president, and hope for the best. If he could start issuing orders even before he’s prez (as I seem to recall Trump himself started doing), maybe we’d already have our mask mandate by now.
If Trump manages to sneak out, maybe the U. S. Government should just seize all his known property in the United States. (We certainly have, and have always had, enough agencies in the Federal Government that aren’t in the habit of fussing about the niceties of Due Process.) If Trump wants to contest that, he can come back here to do it.
With a sudden opening on the Court, Trump has some serious earth available for scorching now. I foresee him putting a horse on the Court (and the Senate Pubs confirming that).
He has already set up a support group and will never be gone for good. He’s mentally prepared to do anything (burn down the white house) or hire someone to kill the senators whom he blames. He will never go away completely. I believe (along with many professionals) that he is seriously mentally ill so he cant be swayed. Don’t draw a line. He doesn’t have one. And he will have all those adoring morons at the ready. When they are sentenced I think we should follow the U.K’s strategy. Send them to an island for life. Are there any empty islands left? They so wronged the indigenous population. Trump s very scary and I don’t want to see large numbers of our troops killed to finally stop him. It Can Happen Here | Cass R. Sunstein | The New York Review of Books
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