How Donald Trump slinks away
Unless Donald Trump is suicidal and/or wants to be taken directly to prison, he obviously won’t try to remain in the White House after President Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20th. Trump would be dragged out by his heels by the Secret Service, and he’d be costing himself any opportunity at convincing a judge to give him bail or house arrest while awaiting his various criminal trials. Trump would immediately be taken to solitary confinement, and his life would be over.
Trump will end up leaving voluntarily, even if he does first try to gain some leverage by acting like he’s going to refuse to leave, to see if we’re gullible enough to give him any concessions in return for leaving.
But once that charade is over, just how will Trump slink off? After all, leaving the White House on January 20th in any fashion will be humiliating for him. So it’s notable that Michael Cohen, who knows Trump quite well, is predicting that once Trump goes to Mar-a-Lago for the holidays, he’ll simply never return. Former Bill Clinton White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart is making a similar prediction.
This might be on the money. By leaving well before Inauguration Day and then simply never going back, Donald Trump will get to avoid the ignominy of having to pack up and leave on January 20th. He can spin it as some kind of final symbolic protest move against the election results, and it’ll allow him to spend the final month of his failed presidency on vacation instead of pretending to do the job.
