What if Trump refuses to accept defeat in 2020?

[ProudMNDemocrat]

A very interesting article over at CNN about this by Joshua A. Geltzer.

President Donald Trump's critics are increasingly focused on the question of which Democrat will challenge him for the presidency in 2020. It's an important question, but another one might be even more important: Regardless of who runs in 2020, if Trump loses, will he leave the Oval Office peacefully?

Let's start with why we need to ask this question: Trump is increasingly proving himself to be a President eager to overstep his authority. Just last week, Trump displayed his willingness to invoke unprecedented presidential power to declare a national emergency utterly without justification. This week has brought a startling report from the New York Times that, for the past two years, Trump has tried to undermine the investigations by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and other parts of the Justice Department in order to, in the words of the Times, "make the president's many legal problems go away." In light of these overreaching assertions of his own authority, it's at least plausible that Trump might attempt to cling to power in ways previously unimaginable by an American president.

Trump's unrelenting assaults on the media and intelligence community, augmented by his baseless insistence on widespread voter fraud, have laid the groundwork for him to contest the election results in worrisome ways by undermining two institutions Americans would count on to validate those results.

More......[link:https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/23/opinions/trump-contest-2020-election-loss-geltzer/index.html|
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It is my assumption Trump, should he happen to lose in 2020, will call the election fraudulent, decry Voter Fraud without proof, and refuse to leave in 2021. He will call on his MAGAts to protest the election results. He is that petty.

[GeorgeGist]

1. I would hope the SS...

would throw his ass out.

[Quemado]

3. Lawrence O'Donnell predicted that on Real Time with Bill Maher

last August.

Go to minute 8:21

?t=501

[betsuni]

13. It will be just like how they finally got Nancy Reagan out of the White House.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I really don't think he will still be pResident.

And besides, this is a lot of useless speculation.

[bitterross]

4. You must have more faith people will suddenly become reasonable than I do.

I was about to write the sentence "Short of evidence of Trump doing [...insert something here...] nothing will get him removed from office." Then I had to try to think of something to insert so terrible that even his supporters would turn on him for his guilt. That's where I had the problem. I can't think of anything they won't, or haven't already, excused. They have either excused all of his bad, immoral, illegal behaviors or just went into to denial that those things ever happened.

Even if it came out the he and Epstein were actually raping under-aged girls in FL his supporters will deny it is true. Even if he went to trial for it and was convicted, they'd still say it's because people just didn't like him. That the deep state was out to get him.

I don't see those people becoming reasonable any time soon. I have even less faith in the GOP politicians. Their actions to date sure make them look like they are just as compromised as Trump. Probably more so, since I think a lot of them are smarter than Trump and were cooperating - not just being a useful idiot.

[rurallib]

7. having thought about this for years, raping little boys

was the only thing I could come up with. And that would probably only take out 1/2 of his support.

[tritsofme]

5. The professor does make one obvious mistake in his analysis. It is the new Congress that counts

electoral votes, not the outgoing one.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. Personally, I think rump is missing all of his fun and games since becoming our ...

so called president and think he'll be eager to leave the office. He got pissed off at Barak O at the correspondence's dinner in Wash. DC and thus wanted revenge.

I think he's in way over his head and is now realizing the big mistake in opening his mouth. You can see evidence of this in literally everything he's doing. Everything he touches goes turns to crap and nothing significant comes out of any of his efforts (other than to cut his own taxes...figures).

Now, he has no more fun and games, can't play with his 'toys' (you all know what I mean here) along with his sick buddies down in FL (and elsewhere too, I wouldn't be surprised if he has 'toys' stashed everywhere).

Another likely scenario (and more my biased thinking) is that he'll get tired of the whole mess and resign, and get out while the going is 'good', relatively speaking. Then we'll have Pence in like Ford was after Nixon, and then the 2020 elections will be upon us and we'll finally have our candidate in as the new 2020 president elect, in a new democratic administration.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

8. Scary thought....Pence could actually BE ELECTED President!

If that were the case.

[rurallib]

9. I have literally been thinking about this since

he made that statement in 2016 - that if he lost he would not accept the election as legitimate.
Now put on top of that that he will have access to at least some of the power of the presidency in 2020.

My thoughts have scared me. I personally believe that he is more than willing to start a civil war to keep his power. Will the army back him? Will republicans in congress back him? In both cases I think there will be some.
Of course the yahoos in the hinterlands are already ready to take up arms and start shooting.

Who will oust Trump? A delegation from congress? the Secret Service? The Pentagon?

If things go to crap, but are eventually stopped, will we return to a democracy or will some General decide to impose martial law?

The scenarios scare me. Since Trump has pretty much refused to be bound by norms or for that matter laws, why would he be bound by an election ?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. If he loses he leaves like all his predecessors. He will hem and haw all the way out.

The armed forces aren't going to help him stay.

[struggle4progress]

11. It wouldn't matter. His power exists only due to the combined effect

of thousands and thousands of daily agreements to that power

Almost all of those agreements will cease to reproduce themselves on 20 January 2021. On that day, the White House staff becomes responsible for attending the needs of the new President; the Secret Service employees become responsible for the safety of the new President; and so on

Mr Trump lacks the competence to hold the White House on his own, even with the help of Ivanka and Jarod. He wouldn't know most of the basics needed to function alone in the building

Try to imagine all the people required to carry out a usurpation like that: it's not doable

The article is simply idiotic

[roamer65]

12. Drag his sorry fucking ass out of our house forcefully.

Fucker needs to know what an eviction is like.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

14. Who was the last president this question didn't come up for?

[jmowreader]

15. It is very simple

By the time 1-20-2021 rolls around, Trump will have pissed off so much of the government he'll have no support from the Secret Service, the military or the intelligence community. So, on 1-19-2021 the Secret Service will walk into where he is and tell him, in no uncertain terms, "at noon tomorrow this is not your home anymore. If you do not peacefully vacate the premises after the inauguration, you will be removed."

On 1-20, if he tries to squat in the White House they will pick his whiny ass up, carry it to the White House loading dock, place it in a truck (being sure to not hold his head down while they're loading it into the truck), drive it to BWI, stuff him into his own airplane and tell the crew to fly anywhere that isn't DC.

What I really expect to happen: if Trump loses the election he will do something to totally fuck over the country, then he and Pence will resign simultaneously and flee the country for Russia, leaving President Pelosi to clean up after him.

[Recursion]

16. Let's actually beat him first, and worry about that after (nt)

[Dave Starsky]

17. He flat out SAID in 2016 that he wouldn't accept the results if he lost.

What makes anyone think the next election will be any different?