Hi
Please explain why the removal of a President after he/she loses an election is an issue. If Donald Trump loses the 2020 election, but does not acknowledge his loss, what is to prevent him from being physically removed from the White House/from office. What laws/powers would allow him to stay in office beyond a loss in the 2020 presidential election? Who has the authority to physically remove him and who can oppose it?
I look forward to your feedback.
nothing. if his opponent wins and the election results are all certified, as of Inauguration Day 2021 he will no longer be President of the United States. Period. If he refuses to vacate, I imagine the Secret Service (beholden to the office of the President and its current rightful tenant, not any particular person) will physically see him out of the White House.
btw, this is nothing new. I remember conservatives being terrified in 2016 that Obama would suspend elections/refuse to leave office. I remember liberals being terrified in 2008 that W Bush would suspend elections/refuse to leave office. I remember conservatives being terrified that Clinton would suspend elections/refuse to leave office in 2000. none of them ever came to pass.
President Trump can physically remain in the oval office and it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. I’m sure they can convert an unused conference room to an office for new President Marianne Williamson fairly quickly. The office doesn’t even have to be in the White House. Then they can just wait for former President Trump to get hungry and come out on his own.
Of course, if the “deep state” and the military choose to follow the orders of President Trump instead of President Williamson, all bets are off. We’ve never had a situation like this and nobody can say what will happen. Even worse if the Army chooses to follow one and the Air Force chooses to follow the other. But that could happen even if the former president gets kicked out of the White House and chooses to set up his command post in the park across the street.
The new president will be the president no matter what physical suite of offices they occupy. As long as the government machinery follows the law and their oaths of office, the new president will rule. If something happens to make them forsake their duties, chaos will ensue.
Who is sitting in which physical suite of offices makes no more difference than whether the flag has a yellow fringe on it.
True. But I think Trump is from a whole different corner of Middle Earth than Clinton/W/Obama. Whereas the other formers had their adversaries, there wasn’t really anything about them anyone could point to that was flat bonkers. Only the most deluded, even among his own fan club, would deny that The Don is not all there. I’m willing to assume he will be persuaded to put on his big boy pants and depart without vandalizing the bathrooms & pissing on all the beds. But I will not be shocked if that all comes to pass.
It isn’t an issue. As jz78817] said, there is often a flurry of paranoid speculation during a president’s first term that he will refuse to leave office if not re-elected, and it has never come even remotely close to happening. (The second-term equivalent is “So-and-so will suspend the 22nd Amendment and run for a third term!” which is even less likely to happen, as it would a) require the collaboration of a multitude of other political officeholders, most of whom don’t want it to happen; and b) would make no damn sense, as any president who has survived two terms with their popularity, reputation, and health sufficiently intact to contemplate a third term has already pulled off the political equivalent of winning the lottery, and very few people would want to throw it away on a controversial third-term bid when they could have a nice rest-of-their-life being an elder statesmen and giving exorbitantly priced speeches.)
Curious, I don’t remember these concerns before the current 3rd world dictator got into office.
Both Snopes and ABC News wrote articles debunking internet rumors that Obama had announced he would refuse to cede office to Trump.
These sort of rumors happen. The internet has given them a larger forum. It is enough of a thing that it has become the subject of satire websites.
It’s a non-issue with the current President despite paranoid speculation otherwise. And in the unbelievably unlikely event that he didn’t vacate the White House at the appointed time, so what? It might be a bit awkward for the new President at receptions, but that’s about it.
it doesn’t matter. Trump can say whatever he wants. the people who attend his rallies can say and do whatever they want. But he can’t just unilaterally make law. If he’s voted out of office next year, he’s no longer President. full stop.
Then you’re like under 20 years old or something?
Try over 50.
Maybe it is a Facebook thing? I don’t Tweet, Facebook or Instagram. I read a fair amount of news, but probably miss crackpots posting outside of a few here.
Rather making the point, we have had almost identical threads before.
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=851368
Really? You don’t remember the stories of the “This Road Closed by Order of Martial Law” signs that Bill Clinton had hidden at WalMarts all over the nation, or the black helicopters that George H.W. Bush kept filled with United Nations troops in preparation of turning the country over to the Trilateral Commission? You don’t remember how Ronald Reagan was somehow going to overturn the 22nd Amendment all by himself so he could be elected President for Life?
No, I really don’t. Where does this crap come from? Especially back in Reagan’s day.
People communicated in other ways before FB and Twitter.
But how did crackpots communicate? Was it those checkout line rags like The Star and The Enquirer? I’m not sure how I would have possibly heard the bizarre Reagan rumor/worry. It wouldn’t be in real newspapers or on the news. Radio didn’t have crazy call in shows back then and obviously nothing like the Internet.
When I was studying this stuff in the 80s, some fringe groups communicated via paper zines and/or BBSes. I remember being amazed at how organized the KKK/Nazi/militia nuts were with BBSes (and how many there were at the time). And they were sure good at pumping out screeds on paper that they’d mail to anyone showing any interest at all in their cause.
From the environmental crackpot side, Earth First! and PETA published pretty respectable college newspaper-ish publications. As I recall, they also had presences on Compuserve/The Source which were the text-only precursors to the Internet.
The fringe dies without decent channels of communication so I think the crackpots jumped on the latest bits of technology that would help them to communication.
I figure I’m on some government watch lists still 35 years later. My philosophy was to keep them guessing so every Nazi newsletter I got was nicely balanced with a package of Wobbly/IWW organizing materials. Keep 'em confused seemed to be the best strategy.
AM radio and word of mouth. Rush Limbaugh was HUGE during the Clinton presidency. He wasn’t nearly as unhinged as today, but still “Billary” was public enemy # 1 as far as they were concerned.
To be fair, none of them kept “joking” about getting more than two terms or staying in power indefinitely (nor retweeted people suggesting it).
Still doesn’t explain the Reagan one and I don’t feel bad about not listening to Rush in the 90s.
[Moderating]
Since the question has been fully and completely answered, and since this thread is attracting a lot of comments inappropriate for GQ, I’m just going to close this.
EDIT: In particular, post #4, from Inigo Montoya, and post #6, from What Exit?, were out of line.
