Trump has lost the election on the the strength of mail in ballots counted after election night.
Trump declares the election was stolen and takes the case to court.
SCOTUS rules against Trump.
Trump declares the decision illegitimate and, along with William Barr, orders the Secret Service, US Marshals, and assorted DHS officers (the guys who were black bagging people in Portland) to not allow Biden to take over. Due to purges conducted by Trump, those LEOs stay loyal to Trump rather than the US and follow his orders.
Biden and Roberts ask those civilian LEOs to disregard Trump’s and Barr’s orders, but they refuse, stating that they believe Trump when he claims the election was actually stolen.
Biden then gets a court order from the SCOTUS signed by Roberts, the 4 liberal justices, and maybe Gorsuch. The order states Biden is the duly elected POTUS.
Biden then orders the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to mobilize the military to arrest Trump, Barr, and whatever civilian LEOs that remain loyal to Trump, on charges of treason.
At that point the top military leaders will have a difficult call to make, but my guess is they would follow Biden’s orders.
Yeah, it’s a worst case scenario, but as bad as Trump is, and with the purges he’s conducted at the DOJ and DHS, I don’t believe it to be entirely out of the realm of possibility.
Since we’re following the rule of law in removing the President (although he wouldn’t be arrested, impeachment just removes him from office), the VP becomes President. At that point it’s a political decision of Congress whether they want to remove him or her as well. Regardless of the dirty election, the results were accepted and the President and VP were sworn into office. At that point they are serving in those roles and need to be removed (or not removed) by the Impeachment process or the 25th amendment.
If it can be demonstrated that the VP had nothing to do with stealing the election, the parties in control of Congress could decide that it’s better for the country to have them serve out the term. Criminal acts are essentially irrelevant to the decision to impeach, which is the only legal way to remove them from office. Once sworn in, nothing else matters.
OP, it seems like you’re asking what happens if the president does illegal things to win an election. If you’re positing than no one will enforce the laws, then the president remains president. It’s like asking what happens if I ignore the rules of chess and just take your king – if no one protests, I win the game.
Once you throw out the rule of law, anything can happen. The US isn’t some magical place where democratic elections and peaceful transfer of power MUST happen – it relies on people and institutions and the rule of law. If you’re assuming that those things fail, then the US is no longer a democracy.
For example, Russia had a democracy of sorts until Putin came to power. Since then, he’s changed things so that the power lies with the president when he was president and it lies with the PM when he was the PM and he’s gotten rid of term limits. So, it’s no longer really a democracy. This can happen anywhere. It has happened in Hungary and Turkey, too.
If RBG dropped dead tomorrow, McConnell would have the next Federalist hack installed before the election, and then you don’t even need Roberts to rule that all the absentee ballots are illegal, or whatever it is you’re positing.
Note to people who are going to say that I’m being a chicken little – I don’t think these things are going to happen, I’m just responding to the OP’s hypothetical.
You can’t just say wherever. The other country has to take them. And mass deportation in numbers large enough to matter would require a giant transportation system that doesn’t exist.
But an army of intimidators at the polls. I guess that could happen. Send Homeland security or immigration people to Philly and Pittsburgh to prevent voting and there goes PA. It would be a constitutional crisis.