Trump Won't Leave Office Quietly, And Why
"Trump has a lot to fear — and he won’t leave office quietly." By Bill Blum / Independent Media Institute July 15, 2020. AlterNet, July 15, 2020.
The presidency of Donald John Trump is collapsing. Unwilling or unable to confront the deadly realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than 138,000 American lives, the president’s job-approval ratings have plummeted. The ravages of the virus, in turn, have triggered a deep economic slump, pushing unemployment rates to levels not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. There is a growing perception that our 45th commander in chief, never known for his intellectual acuity or moral rectitude, is unfit to lead the nation in this moment of extreme crisis.
Even the Supreme Court, with two of his own appointees on the bench, has seemingly turned against him. On the last day of its just-completed 2019-2020 term, the court released a pair of landmark decisions on presidential power, rejecting Trump’s desperate attempt to quash subpoenas issued by Congress and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance for his tax returns and personal financial records. Writing for a 7-2 majority in both cases, Chief Justice John Roberts rebuffed Trump’s claims of sweeping presidential immunity and reaffirmed the bedrock principle that no one—including the president—is above the law.
According to many polls, if the election were held today, Trump would lose in a classic landslide. If the pundits are correct, the entire Republican Party could be dragged down with him.
Trump’s abiding corruption and incompetence have prompted urgent calls for his resignation by newspaper editorial boards, columnists and activists like Ralph Nader. Even before his stunning setbacks in the Supreme Court, there was considerable and widespread speculation that rather than face humiliation in November, Trump will step down in the fashion of Richard Nixon, or announce à la Lyndon Johnson that he won’t seek reelection after all.
As the veteran commentator Robert Kuttner mused in a recent article in the American Prospect: “If Trump senses a blowout defeat well beyond the usual Republican margin of theft, [he] may decide that it’s more dignified to retire undefeated. He can claim that the election was rigged, that he would have won, blah blah blah, and he can have the satisfaction of agitating his base as president-in-exile with no responsibility whatever for the consequences.”
Regrettably, I have to demur. Trump will never voluntarily stand aside...
https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trump-has-a-lot-to-fear-and-he-wont-leave-office-quietly/
Bill Blum is a retired judge and a lawyer in Los Angeles. He is a lecturer at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication. He writes regularly on law and politics and is the author of three widely acclaimed legal thrillers: Prejudicial Error, The Last Appeal, and The Face of Justice.
This article was produced by the Independent Media Institute.
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