Jane Mayer, crack investigative journalist for The New Yorker, writes that Trump is afraid of losing because so many state investigations and lawsuits and debts await him, and perhaps, prison.
No American President has ever been charged with a criminal offense. But, as Donald Trump fights to hold on to the White House, he and those around him surely know that if he loses—an outcome that nobody should count on—the presumption of immunity that attends the Presidency will vanish. Given that more than a dozen investigations and civil suits involving Trump are currently under way, he could be looking at an endgame even more perilous than the one confronted by Nixon. The Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said of Trump, “If he loses, you have a situation that’s not dissimilar to that of Nixon when he resigned. Nixon spoke of the cell door clanging shut.” Trump has famously survived one impeachment, two divorces, six bankruptcies, twenty-six accusations of sexual misconduct, and an estimated four thousand lawsuits. Few people have evaded consequences more cunningly. That run of good luck may well end, perhaps brutally, if he loses to Joe Biden. Even if Trump wins, grave legal and financial threats will loom over his second term.
Two of the investigations into Trump are being led by powerful state and city law-enforcement officials in New York. Cyrus Vance, Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney, and Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, are independently pursuing potential criminal charges related to Trump’s business practices before he became President. Because their jurisdictions lie outside the federal realm, any indictments or convictions resulting from their actions would be beyond the reach of a Presidential pardon. Trump’s legal expenses alone are likely to be daunting. (By the time Bill Clinton left the White House, he’d racked up more than ten million dollars in legal fees.) And Trump’s finances are already under growing strain. During the next four years, according to a stunning recent Times report, Trump—whether reëlected or not—must meet payment deadlines for more than three hundred million dollars in loans that he has personally guaranteed; much of this debt is owed to such foreign creditors as Deutsche Bank. Unless he can refinance with the lenders, he will be on the hook. The Financial Times, meanwhile, estimates that, in all, about nine hundred million dollars’ worth of Trump’s real-estate debt will come due within the next four years. At the same time, he is locked in a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over a deduction that he has claimed on his income-tax forms; an adverse ruling could cost him an additional hundred million dollars. To pay off such debts, the President, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be two and a half billion dollars, could sell some of his most valuable real-estate assets—or, as he has in the past, find ways to stiff his creditors. But, according to an analysis by the Washington Post, Trump’s properties—especially his hotels and resorts—have been hit hard by the pandemic and the fallout from his divisive political career. “It’s the office of the Presidency that’s keeping him from prison and the poorhouse,” Timothy Snyder, a history professor at Yale who studies authoritarianism, told me.
Will crowds be chanting, “Lock him up?” as they did for Hillary at so many Trump rallies? Karma.
Trump despoils everything and everyone around him and then kicks himself up to the next rung so he can despoil more. In this case, he’s dragging a good number of American people along with him. . . . we’ll see. CBK
If Trump loses, I would prefer him to fade into memory, rather become a top news topic for the next four years. It may not be possible anyway, but that’s my preferred universe.
Unless he is held to account for his crimes, he won’t fade away. He gets a thrill from the adulation at his rallies and he will continue holding them, alleging that the election was stolen and rigged and that Biden is corrupt and illegitimate.
You may well be right. Not sure indicting him will hold him to account, either. There may be no winning with this guy.
And Princess, Jr and Dumbo won’t go away either if Daddy is still around spewing his nonsense. Trump is bad enough….but his 3 oldest children and their SO’s are more than I can stomach.
And that was the quid pro quo of Russia-gate. Trump was not going to win the Election. So what did Putin get? He got Trump running around the country for four years . Screaming that the vote was rigged that undocumented immigrants stole the election from the good Trumpanzees , a thorn in Clinton’s side and the Nation. . Why he might even get his own Russian funded TV Network to spread hate and division.
Trump in turn would get continued Russian funding for his bankrupt enterprises and Jared’s .
If Trump won then the possibilities were endless . The sanctions would be dropped . Rex Tillerson might become Secretary of State. A 1/2 trillion dollar oil deal between Exxon and PUTIN hanging in the balance. And for Trump wealth that would make Midas jealous. Starting with his largest ever hotel in Moscow. And the beauty, it was all in code as Cohen said; no one need spell it out .
Of course Mueller never followed the money. He was chosen “to land the plane ‘” . Rosenstein knowing the good soldier would never stray out of bounds. Mueller being the only person who could say with a straight face that he could not prove Roger Goodell saw Ray Rice do what all of America saw on the nightly news in living color.
Maybe Dienne can come up with an explanation for Manafort delivering Internal polling data , strategy and targeted States to a Russian Agent. To be delivered to the third most powerful Capo in Moscow and thus to the God Farther . The lead prosecutor Weissmann could not.
The Federal prosecutions looming with the power of the pardon gone should make Tish James look like a good alternative. And the “Deep State” has a big score to settle.
I agree with that. An agonizingly slow moving flesh-eating bacteria combined with catastrophic bankruptcy that exposes how few “friends” he really has is a nice fantasy, however.
For that to happen, they’re going to have to curtail his internet privileges in jail– at minimum, forced cancellation of his Twitter accountn
Soon will the consequences flow
for The Teflon Don version 2 point 0.
Never count your stable geniuses store they are stabled.
Before they are stabled
Counting Stable Geniuses
Stable geniuses shan’t be counted
Ere in stable they’re dismounted
Else you might encounter one
That like Wildfire’s born to run
If will all be a moot point if he wins.
In fact, we will all be a moot point if he wins.
Moot Points
If Donald Trump should win
A moot point we will be
The Donald and his kin
Will reign like Richard Three*
*33 years
Voices raised in a chorus singing, “Lock Trump Up!” will not be from his base of deplorable supporters, but that chant will drown out their voices because they are a small minority of the population that thinks power comes from having an AR -15 hanging from a shoulder.
Trump has a big ego (not the waffles). ☹️
I don’t want crowds shouting “Lock him up” –
I want GOP SENATORS and REPRESENTATIVES and GOVERNORS shouting it – – and when they don’t, I want THEM TO BE ACCOUNTABLE for not having investigated and confronted his heinous actions.
Either the prosecutors or true journalists or both should have been and should be going after him – – – – and those complicit.
How someone can elicit 26 accusations of sexual misconduct and 4,000 lawsuits — 4,000 lawsuits — is beyond my comprehension.
Yes, it does seem kind of low, doesn’t it?
“if he loses—an outcome that nobody should count on—the presumption of immunity that attends the Presidency will vanish. ”
Well, I do count on Trumpkin’s losing the election. But, unfortunately, I also count on Biden pardoning him.
On the other hand,Kushner may face prison based on his extremely shady dealings with his tenants. There is a whole episode of the Netflix serioes Dirty Moneydevoted to Kushner.
Trump’s Entreaty
Pardon me
Could you spare a dime?
And for free
Could you spare a crime?
Trump to Pence (sung by Lynn Anderson)
I beg your pardon
I ever promised you a Rose Garden
Along with the sunshine
There’s gotta be a little reign some time
Biden has no reason to pardon Trump. Ford pardoned Nixon because he was his Vice-President.
Ford pardoned Nixon because that was the deal they struck
Diane and Mate I heard one of the talking heads say that many of the lawsuits against Trump are from BEFORE he was elected so that the new President cannot pardon him for those. Not sure . . . but it should come out in the narratives to come. CBK
I picture Ex-it45 commencing, on Thurs Jan 31, an extensive round-robin of $high-ticket speeches [ /rallies]– crowded & unmasked– for purposes of raising dough to pay his debts/ fines/ suit settlements. Don’t know if he could raise a $billion, but he could make enough of a dent to attract loans covering him until death– at which point his nepotistic family will have to cough up the bulk of what they pulled in while he was in office. [Crocodile tears.]