The Next POTUS

Mike Pence. Take it to the bank.

Sure…Mike really inspires the masses.

If Trump can’t pardon himself, Mikey will.

Isn’t Joe Biden the next POTUS?

I find it inconceivable that Trump would quit early, allowing Pence to take office to pardon him. One, because Trump will go to his last day in office claiming that he won and he’s the rightful president. Resigning runs counter to that.

But more importantly, I can’t see Trump trusting Pence to follow through with a pardon. He’ll assume that Pence would just acknowledge Trump’s resignation then tell him to get the fuck out of his office. Because it’s precisely what Trump would do if the situation were reversed.

Oh I see. I think it’s possible in a ‘take my ball and go home’ tantrum but unlikely.

Accepting a pardon is admitting to being guilty of something, which he is incapable of doing.

I’m only accepting the pardon so I won’t be UNFAIRLY and ILLEGALLY PROSECUTED for doing my job!!!"

The Left Bank Of The Mississippi?

Exactly right and his rubes will buy it.

Too many states would go after him with charges, it wouldn’t protect him anyways. No point in doing it.

Thanks for the reply. I think Pence will agree to pardon Trump just to become President for a few weeks or days. Although it wouldn’t immunize him from state prosecution, Trump would use it for PR value and sympathy points with his base. Plus it would spare him the humiliation of handing control directly to the “doddering, senile, weak candidate” that beat him on January 20. And it’s not like he has any regard for decorum, tradition, or respect for the office.

To be replaced by the humiliation of resigning before the end of his term in order to get a pardon. Which one seems worse to you?

I think that won’t happen. As other posters have mentioned, Tan the Conman (TCM) does not trust anyone because he lies like a rug himself. There’s no way he’ll agree to exit the Whie House and then leave his fate in the hands of Pence. For one thing, even if they made a deal in private, TCM is incapable of not blabbing it to all and sundry. The next issue is that he’d insult the man while at the same time begging him to issue the pardon.

Another option, of course, is for the cabinet to remove TCM via Article 25 of the constitution. That’s really, AFAICT, the reason behind his loyalty oaths early on. To protect himself from that happening now, he’d fire all the cabinet officers he can and replace them with “acting secretaries” and he’d publicly have them admit they would not activate the A25 option.

And this returns us to why he would not leave his fate in Pence’s hands: he cannot fire the VP.