First things first. Before considering whether Trump will step down, he has to lose the election. And even if the numbers show that he lost, he may not agree and contest the election. If Trump actually loses the election and steps down, there’s a good chance he’s going to wind up in jail in New York State. He cannot pardon himself over state charges and cannot step down and have Pence pardon him. So given the fact that Trump will likely go to prison, he has everything to gain by contesting the election if he loses.
Will Trump claim that the election was fraudulent because of the mail in ballots and try to get those thrown out? And how aggressive will Trump be in refusing to step down and contesting the election. Will he call on his militia supporters to come to his aid and start a civil war? Will he use the militias to prevent him from going to trial, being found guilty and going to jail? Armed civilians in the United States are mainly Trump supporters, many of them militantly so. Will they come out and fight to keep him in office?
Because Trump is an irrational narcissist, no one really knows how far he will go to keep from being called a loser. In all likelihood, even he does not know what measures he will take if he loses the election. He will probably just decide with his gut on the spur of the moment and make a bigly decision that could fracture our democracy.
We have to also remember that even if Trump loses, he has almost three more months as president to wreak havoc on the nation before Biden takes over. That also gives him time to mobilize his militant supporters if he wishes and refuse to surrender his position as president. It is unlikely that the military would back him, but there might be battles in the streets of American cities between the military and the Trump militias.
There are three other remote possibilities. One is that he steps down peacefully and relinquishes the presidency and faces the New York justice system. Another is that he flees to Russia prior to the end of his term. A third is that he kills himself, refusing to accept his loss and the possibility of jail. Trump is significantly ill emotionally and his actions are unpredictable. Whether his advisors and his children will be able to convince him to step down like every other president and accept the will of the people is not currently discernable? If Trump loses, he may do something that no one has yet imagined.
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Posted at 11:29 AM in anti-government groups, Biden, cheating, Conspiracy theorists, Corruption, Covid 19, Corona virus, Current Affairs, demagogue, domestic terrorism, Donald Trump, economy, election rigging, Health Care, justice system, mail-in votes, absentee ballots, military, misogynist, narcissism, pandemic, peaceful transition, Political corruption, Politics, Republican Party, tax evasion, Voter Suppression | Permalink
Tags: contesting election, losing, militias, peaceful transition, refusing to leave, stepping down, Trump
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020