# So What Happens if Hillary Wins and Trump Doesn't Accept It? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 1, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376 "2016-11-01T16:08:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/21 "2016-11-02T01:21:18Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I say that we just tell him that he won. Set him up on a set from west wing, and make it a reality show. > > To be honest, I am sure that we all would be fascinated by what a Trump presidency would look like, we just don’t want to live there. > > This way, we can have the best of both worlds. > > If we get fox in on it, we may manage to convince his more ardent supporters that he won too. We’d let Melania and Ivanka in on it, but tell his sons that their daddy won. You sir win the decade. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/22 "2016-11-02T02:26:33Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > He will concede graciously, retire to private life, and spend his days in charity work amid the downtrodden, culminating in the Nobel Peace Prize. He will become a sort of elder statesman, periodically providing wise insights into the vagaries of the US political system, and working to better the country and his fellow man. So all of this was Jimmy Carter in a Trump mask whoosing us?? > [@](#): > > Or else he will complain a lot, file some lawsuits, and go back to reality TV. > > Regards, > Shodan Now you’re talking. I concur with other posters above, there will be a few days of wailing and gnashing teeth, maybe a few incidents, but there is nothing resembling an organization that could lead to serious trouble (really, the Trump folks are the least-organized movement I’ve seen in some time). And then Hiliary takes the Oath of Office and we return to our regular program… IMHO as always. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/23 "2016-11-02T02:59:37Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Except for a total of 7 days since May he’s been losing in the polls on a daily basis, sometimes by as much as 10 percentage points. I’m not so sure they would be able to get rid of him so easily if he chooses to fight it in the courts. The question is, does he wage that fight with his money or does he ask for help? And who helps him if he calls? He can fight all he wants; politically, if the GOP aren’t behind him, he’s not going to get anywhere, and they’re all going to distance themselves from him as quickly and as far as they can. They’ll want to keep attacking HRC and the Dems as violently as possible, but they will never say the name ‘Trump’ once he doesn’t have the only thing going for him at the moment: that he’s never been beaten in politics. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/24 "2016-11-02T03:04:43Z")
Depends. Trump is going to have to be in court in late November for fraud for Trump University, then he goes back to court in December for a lawsuit alleging he violently raped a 13 year old girl. So it depends on how those cases go. Trump could be, before Christmas, too preoccupied by his lawsuits to put up much of a fight about losing the presidency. But I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/25 "2016-11-02T05:09:17Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > You sir win the decade. Second. An honest answer I agree with is that we may get some Draconian laws about voting. The homeless may be disenfranchised (they don’t technically live in a district) and advance voting may require fingerprints. We may finally get that national ID card we’ve been threatened with for years, and we will have to show it, a Passport, or a military ID (which will be more complicated than it used to be). Some state elections may choose to allow secure state IDs, so in future presidential elections, there may be separate ballots, one without the president and VP candidates on it for people with only a state ID, but you might get a provisional ballot if you can prove that you ordered a passport; it simply has not arrived. All the different IDs and ballots will cause confusion, and there will be a clusterfuck that will cause an accidental miscount worse than any fraud. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/26 "2016-11-02T06:54:45Z")
I don’t see us having the level of flap we had in 2000; Trump just doesn’t have the support of his Party the way AlGore did. It will be a storm but settle quickly. In other words the electoral vote will be so bad that it just can’t be contested. As far as someone taking a shot at Clinton I’ll make the same prediction I did when President Obama was elected. I very much doubt anyone would try it and if one does its as likely to be someone from the far left as the right. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/27 "2016-11-02T09:13:26Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Except there isn’t a constitutional requirement for the loser to concede … it is all in the hands of the electoral college, what actually happens on ‘election day’ [presidentially speaking, we aren’t talking about anything else on the ballot] isn’t anything except the individual voters indicating how they want the electoral dudes to vote. I think (hope) Eddie knew that. He was characterizing the mentality of the “dingleberries.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/28 "2016-11-02T12:31:10Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > … > I concur with other posters above, there will be a few days of wailing and gnashing teeth, maybe a few incidents, but there is nothing resembling an organization that could lead to serious trouble (really, the Trump folks are the least-organized movement I’ve seen in some time). > > And then Hiliary takes the Oath of Office and we return to our regular program… > > IMHO as always. YMMV. > [@Junior\_Spaceman](#): > > He can fight all he wants; politically, if the GOP aren’t behind him, he’s not going to get anywhere, and they’re all going to distance themselves from him as quickly and as far as they can. They’ll want to keep attacking HRC and the Dems as violently as possible, but they will never say the name ‘Trump’ once he doesn’t have the only thing going for him at the moment: that he’s never been beaten in politics. Generally agree with both the above. But , Trump [del]enjoys[/del] lives for being in the spotlight. As long as the media keeps pointing cameras at him, and as long as cheering crowds show up, he’ll keep doing it. So IMO the question comes down to this: It’s some date in Dec and Trump announces he’s going to give a rally in some favorable location. Who shows up? If the crowds and cameras show up, he’ll be there and the bandwagon will roll on another week. If not, not. In general the news media has a huge deflation after election day. There’s a coupled days of post-mortem then a few days of “Gosh, we’ve forgotten what else we could possibly talk about.” Then the routine drumbeat of news (and “news”) picks back up. If Trump (or other alt-righties) create enough noise in that quiet time, they could become the central story of the next days, weeks, or if they can keep it up, months. ========== Completely different analysis … For the last year-ish, Trump has been motivated by ego and such, not by money-making. He may have run the campaign at a profit or at a loss; depends on who you ask. But certainly he’s paid a lot less attention to business than he has to politics. It’s also likely his run at the presidency has hurt his brand. At least with his traditional customer base. So can he afford to continue playing at showbiz / politics, or does he need to go back to work? If the latter, he’ll cry “Foul!” and take his toys and go home. If the former, then he’ll try to keep playing as in my first analysis. We shall see. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/29 "2016-11-02T14:32:15Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I think (hope) Eddie knew [there’s a constitutional requirement for the loser to concede]. He was characterizing the mentality of the “dingleberries.” I did know. The aforementioned dingleberries, though, most likely won’t. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/30 "2016-11-02T15:32:39Z")
> [@Junior\_Spaceman](#): > > If there’s one thing that political parties are good at doing, it’s jettisoning losers. Two weeks after the loss, there will hardly be anybody in the GOP who will admit to even having met Trump, let alone supporting him, and his name will be flushed down the memory hole forever. The GOP will eject him, the public may not. Trump is famous not just for being a politician and famous people get media attention regardless of winning or losing an election. Also Trump is particularly skilled at the sort of one-upmanship of himself which keeps him in the spotlight. As long as people keep clicking on Trump articles, the media will keep writing them… ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/31 "2016-11-02T21:27:28Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > For the last year-ish, Trump has been motivated by ego and such, not by money-making. He may have run the campaign at a profit or at a loss; depends on who you ask. But certainly he’s paid a lot less attention to business than he has to politics. It’s also likely his run at the presidency has hurt his brand. At least with his traditional customer base. > > So can he afford to continue playing at showbiz / politics, or does he need to go back to work? If the latter, he’ll cry “Foul!” and take his toys and go home. If the former, then he’ll try to keep playing as in my first analysis. > > We shall see. I was wondering how amenable the kids would be to him taking up the reins of the business again. I’m thinking they may be used to being in charge, and may try to push daddy out. “It’s time for you to sit back and just enjoy life, Dad. Remember what the doctor said. Why don’t you go play some golf in Scotland?” I can’t see Don the Con just going along with this, but the kids might be smart enough to stage a successful coup. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/32 "2016-11-02T21:34:33Z")
Never underestimate the country’s [reservoir of stupid](http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN12X11R). There is a contingent that feels it may be necessary to resolve the election with firepower. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/33 "2016-11-02T22:04:52Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Depends. Trump is going to have to be in court in late November for fraud for Trump University, then he goes back to court in December for a lawsuit alleging he violently raped a 13 year old girl. So it depends on how those cases go. > > Trump could be, before Christmas, too preoccupied by his lawsuits to put up much of a fight about losing the presidency. But I could be wrong. Isn’t he stiffing the company he hired to do polling for him? If so, I imagine they’ll sue. It’ll be really interesting to see who on the Trump campaign staff testifies for the plaintiff. What’s the status of charges regarding the women he’s groped? ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2016, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/34 "2016-11-04T22:28:52Z")
I’m trying to channel my former Republican self to offer my observations here - on the morning of November 9 the GOP will want nothing to do with Donald J. Trump. Think about it, at some point next Tuesday evening numerous media sources are going to simultaneously announce for the third time that a Clinton was just selected to be the next leader of the free world. Letting this happen is an unforgiveable sin among Republicans and they will be rushing to assign blame. The first two times this happened, the GOP couldn’t blame their stalwarts George H.W. Bush or Bob Dole, respectively, because that would basically be an admission that the party of Abraham Lincoln was a failure. But Trump, due to his status as a political outsider, can quickly and easily be written off as a failed political experiment that should not be repeated, and my prediction is that he will be. ---
**Author:** ![OffByOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/45deac/32.png) [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/35 "2016-11-06T03:03:27Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I say that we just tell him that he won. Set him up on a set from west wing, and make it a reality show. > > To be honest, I am sure that we all would be fascinated by what a Trump presidency would look like, we just don’t want to live there. > > This way, we can have the best of both worlds. > > If we get fox in on it, we may manage to convince his more ardent supporters that he won too. We’d let Melania and Ivanka in on it, but tell his sons that their daddy won. I came here to post something much like this, except in my version, we tell him that we lied to the American people and told them that Hillary won, but he, Trump himself is the actual President. He has to stay hidden, because the work he’ll be doing as the Real President ™ is so secret that the public cannot ever even know that he’s doing it. But I like your idea better. I _would_ like to see what a Trump presidency would be like. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/36 "2016-11-06T03:09:47Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > He will concede graciously, retire to private life, and spend his days in charity work amid the downtrodden, culminating in the Nobel Peace Prize. He will become a sort of elder statesman, periodically providing wise insights into the vagaries of the US political system, and working to better the country and his fellow man. > > Or else he will complain a lot, file some lawsuits, and go back to reality TV. > > Regards, > Shodan Nicely done. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/37 "2016-11-06T13:31:46Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > Isn’t he stiffing the company he hired to do polling for him? If so, I imagine they’ll sue. It’ll be really interesting to see who on the Trump campaign staff testifies for the plaintiff. > > What’s the status of charges regarding the women he’s groped? Pretty good bet all the staffer signed NDAs that prohibit them from testifying against Trump on pain of being themselves sued. Whether the judge will vacate all such contracts as being against public policy is a separate matter. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/38 "2016-11-06T15:54:07Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Pretty good bet all the staffer signed NDAs that prohibit them from testifying against Trump on pain of being themselves sued. > > Whether the judge will vacate all such contracts as being against public policy is a separate matter. Can a NDA prevent someone from testifying in a court of law? That would seem strange. I don’t think you can plead the Fifth and I don’t think they can require you to commit perjury. Can you refuse to testify if subpoenaed? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/39 "2016-11-06T16:32:57Z")
You can pretend you don’t remember. You can choose to perjure yourself if you rate the risk of a yet another malicious Trump lawsuit as higher than the risk of a very rare perjury prosecution. All the agreement has to do is have a chilling effect on the willingness of witnesses to come forward. Note the rape accuser has gone back underground citing fears of the adverse consequences. IIRC some grope accusers have failed to come forward or have backtracked for similar reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376/40 "2016-11-06T17:36:47Z")
There’s a few different ways failed Presidential candidates have responded: 1. Fade into obscurity (Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale.) Unlikely for Trump, he’s been a celebrity for 30 years. 2. Become an elder statesman, sometimes power broker in the party (John McCain, Barry Goldwater, John Kerry.) Trump isn’t part of the system, so this role isn’t really open to him, nor would he have any interest in it. 3. Gear up to run again at some point (Nixon, Adlai Stevenson, William Bryan) Trump won’t run again if he loses. 4. Go into private industry and parlay some of their old political connections and fame into big money (Al Gore, H.W. Bush to a smaller degree.) This is probably the route we’ll see, Trump is already famous and rich, but he may believe he can build some sort of big money media empire (maybe a cable channel) and become hundreds of millions or billions of dollars richer by finding a way to monetize his new, even higher levels of fame. 5. Activism/Special Projects (Carter, Herbert Hoover, Obama has given indications he may seek this sort of post-presidency albeit he isn’t a Presidential loser.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-if-hillary-wins-and-trump-doesnt-accept-it/770376.md?page=3)