To be honest, I’m kind of surprised he hasn’t yet awarded himself the Medal of Freedom, so that he could say, “You know my presidency was actually very well-regarded. In fact I was the only sitting president to receive the Medal of Freedom.”
Maybe he’ll do that on last day along with granting himself a pardon.
Here’s a hypothetical:
Say that on 11:00 in the morning on January 20, Trump signs pardons for himself and his entire family and leaves them on the desk in the Oval Office. 12:01, a Biden aide steps in, picks up the pardons, and puts them all in a shredder. What happens then?
Don’t forget that the WH will be undergoing a deep COVID clean before Biden and his staff move in. Any official papers left out will likely be sealed away for at least three days.
If " a Biden aide" did that, it would be bad. But I find it an unlikely hypothetical.
Let’s throw a monkey wrench into the blender-What happens if Trump Tweets pardons on the morning of the 20th?
By “bad”, you mean “awesome”, right?
No, I mean “bad”. The last thing I want is another corrupt administration. Now if he’d drawn up the papers and forgotten to sign them (as he’s been known to do), well…them’s the breaks. But destroying signed papers would be illegal.
Yeah, I know, I know… but wouldn’t it be nice if the shoe was on the other foot for once? It’s kind of annoying that one side gets to cheat and the other side has to follow the rules. Plus, think how cool it would be if Trump complained that the Democrats were lying - for once in his life he’d be telling the truth, and yet he’d have no way to prove it. I think his head might literally explode, Scanners-style.
Well yes, I’ll admit watching him claim “But I did sign a pardon for myself - honest!” with no proof would have a high entertainment value. But not enough to warrant committing a crime for.
We’ll just have to hope there are enough state-level charges to keep us entertained instead.
This reminds me of Leonid Brezhnev, the bumbling bureaucrat who had himself awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union (the USSR’s highest civilian honour) a record four times, as well as Marshal of the Soviet Union (the USSR’s highest military rank). Various other implausible awards and honours (including six Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the October Revolution, and several dozen more) were bestowed on him, usually as birthday presents.
If Trump wants to be the best and greatest at undeserved awards, he’s got a lot of catching up to do in the next two weeks!
I genuinely don’t think Trump cares about, or is even capable of, distinguishing between truth and falsehood inside his own head. He says what he believes is useful in the moment, full stop. Either he gains traction with it, or he doesn’t. Whether or not it’s true is irrelevant.
Golfing in Scotland, belike:
Or…
(And I apologize; I posted this under the wrong thread & I don’t know how to move it)
As we get closer ( I guess I cheated by waiting ) some facts are starting to take shape about Trump’s endgame plans. The Daily Beast is reporting unusual military activity at the military base next to Trump’s Scotland golf resort. Evidently it is scrambling to get together fuel to refuel a military Boeing 757 plane similar to the one used by Trump after he was first elected.
A fully refueled military Boeing 757 plane taking off from Scotland could make it to Moscow easily. (It’s not an exact straight line from DC to Scotland to Moscow, but it’s somewhat close.)
Or, if you play Avalon Hill’s “King Maker” maybe Trump is planning to hide in Scotland for 7 turns…
Any chance you could provide a direct link to the article instead of one that goes through Facebook’s clickthrough-tracker? It’s bad enough that Facebook tries to intercept all its own outgoing traffic, but I absolutely draw the line at it monitoring my comings and goings from the SDMB.
If Trump is planning to hightail it on a military plane, he better be sure to arrive at his destination and disembark before noon on the 20th. I could see him being halfway to Moscow when President Biden orders the plane to turn around.
Any USAF plane carrying the president becomes Air Force One, so I wonder why he’s not taking one of the 747s usually used by the president.
Hell, I’d be happy to continue taking him to whatever destination he wishes. Then - out of COVID concerns - prohibiting the return travel of anyone from that location. And maybe freezing their assets for good measure - just as a precaution.
Apparently he is going to call key states, probably break election interference laws, leave ample evidence of same, then go play a few rounds of golf?
The President can’t just pardon or commute sentence for someone by writing, “YOUU’RE PARDONED!” on a napkin with a Sharpie. There is an entire office at the Department of Justice devoted to reviewing and preparing orders of executive clemency, which have to be approved by a Deputy Attorney General before being presented to the president for presidential signature.
I highly doubt that Trump is going to fly away to Moscow, or that he’s be welcome there if he did. It is more likely that he’ll rely on his crack legal team that so deftly contested the election results will be laser focused on proving any charges are just a baseless witch hunt concocted by Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Alyssa Milano, Ronan Farrow, and The Thompson Twins. He’ll be vindicated in the court of Fox News opinion by Judge Jeanine Shapiro and everyone will rejoice. At least, that’s how it will play out in Trump’s “a brain”, and he’s a very stable genius who is an expert at everything from immunology to driving a truck.
Stranger
I wonder what would happen if he in fact took one of those on Jan 19. And didn’t come back. Would the military order the pilot and crew to return without him on Jan 20?