Or would he be deposed in a Musharraf-style coup? I know this sounds absurd in the context of American democracy, but we can’t assume that things will always stay consistent just because they have in the past.
I can’t see it being something like keeping Obama in office or installing Hillary after she has lost the election. Too many Republicans and even independents would be angry about that. But what about giving the presidency to Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney? Even just temporarily until a special election could be held? If the top brass of the military and people from intelligence agencies went to them and said they didn’t trust Trump as an agent of Russia or something like that, I could see this happening.
And frankly, I would not oppose it. Yes, it’s extraconstitutional. But so would be the threat of letting Trump be commander-in-chief, and the top law-enforcement administrator in the country.
Of course he can. Constitutional rules are not magic nor computer code. If there are armed men standing in his way when he tries to go up to take the oath of office, he can be blocked.
Good grief. Coup, no. I’m thinking the risks he faces are more along the two court cases I understand start before he would be inaugurated. What happens if an elected president is criminally convicted before they are sworn in? Do they still also have to be impeached and so on?
I would have been strongly against it. But Obama and Trump are very different–and that’s not just my personal partisan opinion. There are huge numbers of high-ranking national security officials from Republican administrations who have signed open letters warning that Trump would be a great danger to the country and the world. All living former presidents from both parties are strongly opposed to him. Nothing like that was true for Obama or any modern nominee that I know of.
good heavens, SlackerInc, don’t be silly. If that horrid excuse for a republican candidate (HERC) wins, there will be a peaceful transition of power. He’ll be sworn in just like every other president. And yes, even if he’s in the middle of lawsuits, or in jail, the HERC will take office. There’s no rule a president can’t be jailed, just a tradition similar to diplomatic immunity. The Secret Service has kept President Obama alive for 8 years, I’m pretty sure they can keep HERC alive long enough to do something stupid and impeachable.
So you propose than instead of letting Trump take office because you didn’t like the election, the United States just not have elections anymore?
Based on a brief examination of places where the army takes over the government, I would suggest you not hold your breath, in such a situation, waiting for the next time the guys in uniform ever give you a say again in who runs the country. Once the soldiers take over, they’re in for a very long time.
So OP is advocating against the broadly accepted and uniformly practiced peaceful transition of power following an election in the worlds largest leading democracy?
I’m sure when you sober up, SlackerInc, you’ll see it for the tremendously bad idea that it is.
Of course Trump will be allowed to take office if he wins the election. Anything else will lead to massive violence and the biggest crisis since the Civil War.
What I do think is possible is that Trump is impeached a year or two after he takes office. Republican lawmakers would massively prefer Pence as President and Democrats would also prefer to be rid of Trump. If Trump’s poll numbers are low which seems likely at some point and if he does anything that can plausibly be considered impeachable which also seems likely, he will be in serious danger of impeachment.
Put me down in the “what are you smoking?” camp. Of course he’d be “allowed” to take office. Under what conceivable scenario wouldn’t he be? If he’s elected by the electors and takes the oath of office, he’s the President.
Sure, he’d be a terrible President, moronically ineffective at everything, and probably cost us numerous lives and a functional economy. But refusing to “allow” the legitimately elected candidate to assume the Presidency would be far, far worse.