Will Trump leave office peacefully and normally if he loses the election?

I dunno, after you get past the dying, death is probably pretty peaceful… :slight_smile:

Lincoln, Kennedy, Garfield, and McKinley beg to differ.

Withhold the diet coke

Bush Sr. sent 28k troops to Somalia after he lost in 1992. They were not supposed to be in combat but they did get involved after Clinton took over.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bush-orders-u-s-troops-to-somalia

I don’t think he really has what it takes to invalidate the election, but I shudder think of the crazy shit he’ll do and/or say as a lame duck. Just imagine the nightmare that Twitter will become. He’ll tweet non-stop. Literally, he will spend all day every day tweeting and retweeting memes and conspiracy theories and he’ll call every Democrat some new horrible name, demanding investigations and hurling accusations at Biden or Schiff or Pelosi or me or you … fucking anyone and everyone. It’s going to be a heck of a few month.

It would be fun to watch.

And that will be a relief. If Trump spends his last few weeks in office tweeting out conspiracy theories and planning lawsuits, he’ll be too busy to do any serious damage.

not long before Nixon quit the sec of defense , James Schlesinger , told the top generals to check with him if Nixon tried to give them orders directly. That might happen again.

Could a prez include in his orders an order not to check with the Secretary or anyone else at all?

I assume he could include anything he wants. But the military are trained to not follow an illegal order. Remember a lot of Nazis tried to claim they were just following orders to kill Jews.

In which case, January 20th rolls around and President Pelosi takes over the White House. :slight_smile:

Garfield was shot in March but died in September so he lingered on for 6 months. During that time they tried a lot of methods to remove the bullet but that probably just made it worse because in 1881 they were not yet worried about infections. They even tried to find the bullet with a type of metal detector from Alexander Graham Bell. BTW Lincoln’s son was there when Garfield was shot.

Why the orange terror will not leave the White House peacefully: Because he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison. One minute after Pres. Biden is inaugurated, agents of several states will step up with warrants. Let’s see, does he go to Sing-Sing or Folsom?

His only escape is to die in office. Since he’s the healthiest president who has ever existed, it’s not likely without assistance. Imagine the shrine erected at the spot he keels over and discorporates! It will be a pilgrimage site for generations, even more than Nixon’s Yorba Linda birth cabin. Statues will rise. Hymns will resonate. White doves will sail the sky. Gold-dipped underage topless dancers will cavort in in pools of kim-chee sent from Pyongyang. Jehovah will weep, but who cares? Glory to the late God-Emperor! Death to Democrats!

Sorry if I got carried away. But think of the spectacle!

Yeah, that’s realistic and reasonable.

But Nixon’s Secretary of Defense wasn’t a toadie. I fear that nobody in the executive branch has the courage to stand up to any order no matter how ridiculous or dangerous.

Rather than just naysay every post by a liberal, no matter how hyperbolic, how about actually adding to the conversation?

Yes that Sec of Defense also served as Sec of Energy for Carter.

The current SOD is a retired Army Lt. Colonel so I think he can stand up to Trump.

I’d like to get ahead of the game.

Will insert next first-term President here leave office peacefully when opponent wins?
Will insert next first-term President here cancel the next Presidential election?

Keep it handy the next time a fascist is elected president. Of course, the first 44 were not fascists so you might have a long wait.

I would say the next President will leave peacefully and normally when his term of office is done. And I have said that Donald Trump will not leave peacefully and normally when his term of office is done if he loses the election and it’s a single term.

I base both of these predictions on the historical record. All of the people who have held the office of President, with one exception, have recognized the dignity of the office and have behaved accordingly. And Trump has been the exception.