That will show him.
The military does very much not like him. What makes anyone think they would implement his orders?
Uhh, that seems like a trap question, but… chain of command?
I don’t have a lot of faith in Pence’s spine, but I think if he gave an order to attack Iran now that would be enough to push Pence into invoking the 25th immediately.
You’re so cute. < pinches Riemann’s cheek >
For starters, the chain of command begins with at least an AUMF. If he does not have such a thing, wildcat orders to attack another country are not lawful. They only have to implement lawful orders. And they brass could probably hold him off for a fortnight with status updates on what they are doing to set up the attack.
Appropriately Uniformed Motherfucker?
Oh, I expect that there will be pushback, especially if what he does will expose US personnel to harm or orders a nuclear strike, but I don’t think that will keep Trump from trying to issue such orders. He still seems to believe he has plenary authority up to and including invalidating legal votes and threatening to arrest political opponents without cause.
We can hope that now that his Cabinet members realize that his time in office is nigh, they’ll reconsider their reluctance to invoke Article 4 of the 25th Amendment and formally remove him in such circumstance. I’d still prefer to see him formally impeached, and soon followed by his key enablers in Congress but I doubt the Senate will be able to muster the votes.
Stranger
I’m sorry but this is wrong, sort of. Much of value has been lost. Maybe you can’t see it yet, but we have lost something. Things are not the same.
You were not wrong.
What’s Trump’s end game for the last 14 days of his presidency?
It’s great, it starts with a riot,
Birds and snakes, an aeroplane, Lenny Bruce is not afraid…
I’m not sure either of these are desirable at this point - not because I don’t think they’re appropriate, but because strategically we might be better off not doing so.
I’ve heard reports this morning that many of Trump’s base are feeling betrayed and abandoned by Trump after he finally came out and condemned the actions at the Capitol on Wednesday. We ought to let those feelings build among the base. If a move is made toward impeachment, or removal via the 25th, it would likely galvanize his supporters, especially if an impeachment didn’t lead to a conviction by the Senate. The absolute worst thing that could happen, at least in Trump’s mind, is his base starting to desert him. I think enough people can delay/circumvent/kneecap anything he might try to do in the next 12 days that it would be best to let him sink alone with his ship.
Agreed. Best thing that could happen is for everybody in the whole country to hate him. First the people who always recognized him for what he is, then politicians who tried to ride his coattails and now have to swim in their own sewage, the Trump voters with enough intelligence to know that this is not what they signed up for, and then the loyal idiot fanboys who he would sell out in a heartbeat.
There’s a point there – no giving him the chance to play victim. Especially when 130 members of the House, even after the events, still stood and voted to make his case. Sure the impeachment would pass but they all would take the chance to re-motivate the fanatics, from the floor and from OANN/Newsmax/Fox screens.
If he had one honorable cell in his body he’d self-25th, send a letter saying he feels he is in no condition to fully exert the role, but that would mean putting Pence in the Acting POTUS role and that would only tick off his followers even more, and he needs them to continue contributing.
Lessee… maybe for the next 10 days he’ll be stashed at Camp David, with his doctors and advisors drugging him with uppers and downers in an ever changing blend.
I’ve been hearing this nonsense about how Trump’s latest kerfluffle or policy move is going to cause his base to abandon him for going on four years now and it has yet to happen by any metric. He slapped farmers with his pointless trade war, failed to bring back manufacturing jobs or reinvigorate the coal industry, and generally done fuck-all for anyone but himself. The only group that has actually gotten some of what they wanted from Trump were radical Christian evangelicals who were thrilled about him moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem and thus (in their twisted minds) bring the world closer to Armageddon, and there is even grousing among that crowd that Trump has not done enough. And yet, his people still love him to the tune of record election turnout (fortunately defeated by the even larger turnout for Biden, but by an uncomfortable narrow margin) and will stand for him no matter how hard he fucks them. He’s Ferris Bueller writ large, stealing your car and then making you think he’s done you a big favor when it is wrecked. They aren’t going to abandon him even after he is out of office and will likelyjust transfer their affections to one of his offspring (well, Ivanka, anyway…nobody is going to give Eric any respect) once he is irrelevant or dead.
The absolute worst thing that could happen in reality is that Trump could order a nuclear strike against Iran or North Korea–which he has absolute authority to do without a y Congressional oversight whatsoever–and even if none of his cabinet authenticate it as a valid order coming from the sitting President, just the fact he did it will further reduce the standing and international confidence in the US on the world stage. Although I wouldn’t trust Pence further than I could throw him, he at least seems resigned to the fact that his time in office is over and pulling some kind of stunt would just ultimately harm his cause. Trump is clearly in hard charging, DGAF mode, and the sooner he lacks presidential authority and access to nuclear launch codes, the better I’ll sleep.
Stranger
“So Much Vice We Impeached Him Twice!”
I agree to this point, but this case is a fair bit different - it’s Trump publicly and directly repudiating the people that were at that scene supporting him. That’s going to sting them greatly, even if you and I know he didn’t really mean it - the fact he said it will be enough for some of them, at least.
Even if he didn’t mean it, being able to be forced to say it should deflate him in their eyes.
So I’m morbidly curious in how they’ll explain that it’s still somehow all a part of the secret plan.