Trump Leaving Office Poll (Part 2)

[Friday]

So, now we're here.

Care to be more specific?

[Thad]

2's a joke answer and clearly not gonna happen.

I still don't think it'll come down to Trump getting escorted off the premises. I can't rule it out, but it requires that he doesn't realize this is actually happening until literally the moment he's ordered to leave by armed guards. On the one hand, he is a delusional narcissist who still thinks he can bluff his way out of this, but on the other, he hates being humiliated more than anything. I still think he eventually -- late, but eventually -- realizes there's no weaseling out of this and leaves under his own power. He won't be gracious about it and he'll spend the rest of his life saying the election was illegitimately stolen from him and blah blah blah, but he'll do his best to avoid looking weak and like he's being forced out. Okay, Mom, I will go to my room, but it's because I want to!

Failing that? I'm not kidding about the whole "disconnect the cable and wifi and see how long he lasts" thing. Motherfucker does not have the attention span to stay put if you take his toys away.

[Upthorn]

Slightly modified 1:

Trump will never concede and will be escorted/thrown out, a humiliating end that he is very slightly short on the necessary support to prevent but will make his best efforts to do so, and stir up quite a bit of violence from supporters in the process.

[Grath]

Slightly modified 1: He never concedes, but just before his term's over he flees to a non-extradition country like, say, Russia, so that SDNY can't throw him in jail for his state-level crimes that he can't pardon himself from.

[Mongrel]

2's a joke answer and clearly not gonna happen.

I still don't think it'll come down to Trump getting escorted off the premises. I can't rule it out, but it requires that he doesn't realize this is actually happening until literally the moment he's ordered to leave by armed guards. On the one hand, he is a delusional narcissist who still thinks he can bluff his way out of this, but on the other, he hates being humiliated more than anything. I still think he eventually -- late, but eventually -- realizes there's no weaseling out of this and leaves under his own power. He won't be gracious about it and he'll spend the rest of his life saying the election was illegitimately stolen from him and blah blah blah, but he'll do his best to avoid looking weak and like he's being forced out. Okay, Mom, I will go to my room, but it's because I want to!

Failing that? I'm not kidding about the whole "disconnect the cable and wifi and see how long he lasts" thing. Motherfucker does not have the attention span to stay put if you take his toys away.

Pretty much this. He'll drag it out as long as he can but will stop just short of actually having to be escorted off the premises.

[Friday]

So what, Jan 10-19th he does... what?

What does he say that isn't a concession? Does he call a press conference and say "the dems stole the election, and they have rigged the justice system so I can't prove it, there's a massive conspiracy, and I'm going to leave now."

I mean, I'm trying to think of an endgame where he manages to find a way out of the White House that saves his face.

Grath's idea seems somewhat plausible (he just fucks off without a word to Russia) but I literally cannot picture the speech that he gives before he leaves the White House. And I really don't like that, because it means if he doesn't just vanish to Russia overnight, it means he's going to do

3. other.

[Friday]

Actually, let me be clear.

In wolf, a lot of the time I find the correct answer (the wolf) not by finding who is suspicious, but by systematically eliminating possible wolves. Basically, I prove (in my mind) people innocent until I have narrowed my list down to just a few possible suspects.

This isn't a superpower, this is called "process of elimination" and is used frequently by everyone, everywhere, all the time.

Here's the thing. Right now, my friends and family (and to some extend, the media) seem to think that the only possible outcomes are "he concedes eventually" or "he's thrown out."

Both of these options DO NOT fit his MO. He hates humiliation and losing face. As Thad noted, he will do anything to avoid that.

Trump is an idiot, but he's not stupid enough to just sit mindlessly, doing nothing, as the timer runs out. And he's sure as shit never going to admit the dems got him fair and square.

So, then. He gives SOME KIND OF speech where he manages to leave without admitting defeat, he fucks off in the middle of the night to Russia, or...

3. other.

[Friday]

Seriously, write the speech for me that has him leaving the White House but also not admitting he lost. I can't picture it, but maybe that's my own lack of imagination.

[Lottel]

He says the system is rigged and his hands are tied as president. He's going to start a government watch group, (a great group, you know you couldn't ask for a better group of guys. And ladies. We'll have ladies too.) and they'll raise money and investigate privately and see that the will of the American people is done.

It could just be a giant money laundering scam and fundraising cult for the far right and set him up to be the next Epstein but could easily morph into him "accidentally having" a PMC but without him having to actually pay the people who kill his enemies.

[Lottel]

Or he'll say it's rigged and his hands were tied so now he's going to start his own news channel. It'll be like the above answer but now he's on TV more as opposed to working more behind the scenes. Well, as far behind the scenes as a man who screams every thought on to Twitter can be.

Either way the man will go down saying he was robbed and advertise his new business venture during whatever he passes as a concession speech.

[Mongrel]

You guys might want to check the election thread. Shit hitting the fan this afternoon.

[Brantly B.]

He's going to "fight" all the way to Jan 20 by tossing out evidenceless ineffective lawsuit after evidenceless ineffective lawsuit, make noises about a military solution that he'll never act on because he's at LEAST cognizant enough to know which way the generals will lean if it comes down to supporting either the lame duck or the democratically elected incumbent, and mostly do what it takes to keep his base firmly in the cult. On Wednesday morning he will decide to go golfing, and then act very very surprised and outraged that a new President just decided to go and move himself into his office while he wasn't looking.

After that? I wouldn't put moving out of the country off the table, but I'm not sure which countries would HAVE him; none of his "friends" like to be associated with losers either. And the dude very much wants to start Trump TV and ascend to cult martyrdom. He won't find much love in NYC any more, and I wouldn't be too surprised if the "friendly foreign country" he escapes to turns out to be, say, Florida. And I wouldn't be surprised if you started to hear the word "secession" get thrown around again in the next four years, especially with the prevailing liberal mindset of "Oh you fuckers DESERVE to trap yourselves in a dystopian Trump dynastic regime."

[beatbandito]

best case scenario it's reported that Trump is on his way to Mar'a'Lago or something then when people notice he's not there they're like "oh yeah whoops Trump fled the country and is never coming back"

[Grath]

I would say Argentina like his predecessors, but they have an extradition treaty with the US.

[Thad]

Slightly modified 1: He never concedes, but just before his term's over he flees to a non-extradition country like, say, Russia, so that SDNY can't throw him in jail for his state-level crimes that he can't pardon himself from.

I don't think he's that self-aware. He's bluffed or bought his way out of every legal crisis he's ever faced, up to and including impeachment. It's always worked for him before; I don't think he sees any reason why it won't work for him again.

I think as of right now, he still thinks he's going to be able to talk his way into staying in office. I think it's going to be at least another month before he might finally start to realize that's not going to work. Maybe longer.

He's going to "fight" all the way to Jan 20 by tossing out evidenceless ineffective lawsuit after evidenceless ineffective lawsuit, make noises about a military solution that he'll never act on because he's at LEAST cognizant enough to know which way the generals will lean if it comes down to supporting either the lame duck or the democratically elected incumbent, and mostly do what it takes to keep his base firmly in the cult. On Wednesday morning he will decide to go golfing, and then act very very surprised and outraged that a new President just decided to go and move himself into his office while he wasn't looking.

Right, that's more or less what I'm picturing.

After that? I wouldn't put moving out of the country off the table, but I'm not sure which countries would HAVE him; none of his "friends" like to be associated with losers either. And the dude very much wants to start Trump TV and ascend to cult martyrdom. He won't find much love in NYC any more, and I wouldn't be too surprised if the "friendly foreign country" he escapes to turns out to be, say, Florida. And I wouldn't be surprised if you started to hear the word "secession" get thrown around again in the next four years, especially with the prevailing liberal mindset of "Oh you fuckers DESERVE to trap yourselves in a dystopian Trump dynastic regime."

He did kinda telegraph the whole "moving to Florida" thing when he changed his residency to Florida.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear people threatening secession, but I'd be surprised if it ever became more than a fringe position. (Though I'm including Fox News hosts and maybe a few people in Congress under possible definitions of "fringe".)

[Mongrel]

Joke campaign follows: "Give Florida back to Spain".

[mharr]

Would the various three letter acronyms try to prevent him leaving the country? I know he wasn't really listening to any briefings but that seems like a hell of a national security breach.

[François]

[beatbandito]

[Friday]

Trump administration removes senior defense officials and installs loyalists, triggering alarm at Pentagon