Once again, taking away someone’s passport doesn’t infringe upon this right. An American doesn’t need a passport to enter the US; that just happens to be the easiest way of proving that you have the right to do so. An American who shows up at the border without a passport will not be denied entry; he or she will just be detained for as long as it’s necessary for the border officials to confirm their citizenship.
Anyway, this is a moot point as it was proposed that a newly elected President Biden would immediately revoke Trump’s passport while he was still in the country. In that scenario there is no danger of him being illegally stranded abroad.
Am I evil for wishing, in such a scenario, that Putin reneges and his nibs winds up in a gulag instead? After all Trump demands fealty but often fails to deliver his part of the bargain.
Given Trump’s projecting (anything he accuses someone of doing is something he’s totally guilty of doing), and often outright revealing his intentions in the form of “just kidding around,” I strongly suspect he’s halfway serious about leaving the country if he loses.
When I suggested he might try to anchor down in Russia, I was told that’s an absurd fantasy. Doesn’t seem too far-fetched to me…
It’s also been suggested that Putin would treat Trump very well, just to show the world how compassionate and magnanimous he is, thereby scoring positive PR for himself.
Then we should expect the IRS will confiscate all his real properties and other reachable assets in the United States, and even his off-short assets too where possible.
I’m one of the people who’s been saying Trump will launch a campaign for 2024 is he loses in November. Even if he has no desire to return to the Presidency (or if he’s realistic enough to realize it’s not going to happen) he will still go through the motions as long as people show at his rallies and yell out his name and keep sending him donations.
As for rationalizing his defeat if it occurs, I think Trump will claim the election was stolen. He’ll insist he won so his supposed defeat doesn’t count. And he’ll blame Covid19 (which he will say was an uncontrollable natural disaster) for not doing all of the stuff he promised he’d do.
Some have thought Donald might try using Air Force One to flee,. And I doubt they require the President to show a passport. But I’m sure the crew would be ordered to stand down by Air Force top brass, so that won’t work.
DJT still seems to own a 757, but it doesn’t have the range to reach Russia or Dubai without first stopping in a less friendly venue where they probably would want to see a passport.
So that leaves commercial. And the airlines all require you to show a passport for international check-in. I suppose Emirates would be instructed to make an exception in this case. But what about TSA? Don’t they require showing a passport for foreign flights? I believe they do.
Also, it Biden issues lawless executive orders aimed at the Passport Office, why not TSA?
So, yes, a Biden executive order to confiscate Donald Trump’s passport (or not issue one) would, without due process, take away a citizen’s right to emigrate to countries that would accept him. It’s something even the dictatorial Donald Trump never did to the people he targeted for arrest.
Targeting enemies with lawless executive orders is the sort of thing that could turn me back into a Republican. But I’m confident Joe and Kamala, are better than that.
That’s their policy, not something that’s imposed on them. As a matter of practicality, they always check for a valid travel document in advance, because legally they have to bear the cost of returning passengers who are denied entry to the destination country. If a passenger can convince an airline that he’s entitled to enter his destination country without a passport, then they will let him on the plane.
No they don’t. TSA’s dutiy is to check that the holder of a boarding pass corresponds to the person it was issued to. They do this by checking your ID, but that ID doesn’t need to be a passport.
You seem fixated on air travel. As I’ve argued, the loss of a passport isn’t an absolute bar to this; it just makes it inconvenient. That said, nothing is stopping him from walking across the border to Mexico, which doesn’t normally check passports at US pedestrian border crossings. He could also drive into Mexico or Canada if those countries had made prior arrangements to accept him without a passport.
He could tank up on fuel in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, as long as he paid for it. He could get from there to Moscow, I’m sure. It’s not a long hop, given a Great Circle route.
(Of course, Gander could decline his credit card.)
Is everybody forgetting that right now, no American can leave the country, because other countries aren’t taking us? Once Trump isn’t president, the same would apply to him.
If some country has agreed to let a prominent world leader live in exile, then I’m sure they will make an exception to the normal pandemic restrictions.
That said, I don’t agree with the speculation that Russia will take him. Even supposing that Trump has been working with Putin, or even at his direction, having Trump in Russia would be a PR nightmare for Putin. The press there is still free enough that he’ll have no problem getting the media to widely publicize his rants both domestically and internationally, and he’s already demonstrated time and time again that he has no qualms about biting the hands that feed him. Even if you believe that Putin would then assassinate him to get him out of the way, I doubt he’d want to have to deal with the inevitable fallout. The best way of avoiding the bull-running-amok-in-the-china-shop scenario (or worse, the having-to-put-down-the-bull-running-amok-in-the-china-shop scenario) is for him to not invite the bull into the china shop to begin with.
I predict that Trump will live out his days and run out the clock. He will never see the inside of a jail cell. He will not flee the country. Even as an ex-president, he will wield awesome power over a significant number of Americans and he will use that power to protect himself. He will suffer some financially, but will still live a more luxurious lifestyle than you or me.
If he loses to Biden, neither he nor any other Republican will be president, so there will be no presidential pardon of any kind to be had. Perhaps, if the Republicans get back into power and, if he is still in prison, he may get a pardon then.
Even if Trump loses on November 3rd, 2020, he will still be President until noon on January 20, 2021. He can still do a lot of bad things in the lame duck period.