The election is finally over. Or mostly. There are still some states counting votes. A slew of lawsuits are being launched, up to ten I read. Should be an interesting transition.
We had some friends over for drinks/snacks on Saturday afternoon – people that live a floor above us and are part of our little Covid bubble. They have children so we had the TV on in the background while the children played in the other room. I normally wouldn’t have the TV on but we were following the election coverage and I thought there was a chance that they might announce something important. At 7:25pm local time they announced that Biden was going to be the 46th president of the US.
It was a relief that the call was made, even for many Republicans. There was no question, even before the announcement, that the Trump was not going to follow it up with a concession speech. It’s likely he never will. Though he refrains from presenting any evidence of fraud, he will likely go to his grave insisting that there was, at least publicly. I saw one of the president’s team on the BBC this morning admitting that they don’t have any substantive evidence, at this point, that could possibly be substantial enough to overturn the election results. But, he said, the president has a constitutional right to move forward with investigations (and delays). When asked whether exercising this legal right was good for America or even the Republican party, he simply referred back to it being allowed under the constitution.
His niece, Mary, feels that Trump’s father put a high value on winning during his childhood, so much that losing anything was considered shameful. As such, he wasn’t taught how to do it. It breeds a certain insecurity in someone. Obviously no one likes to lose. I would say that most of my youth I was a terrible loser. But, with age, people can mature and not be so full of themselves – accepting that it’s not the end of the world. Some are able to do this with more grace than others. We’ll see if the president can muster up the courage to do what most feel he won’t.
I read yesterday that he plans on hitting the road again to do some more rallies, supposedly to generate public support for his legal cases. He’s even raising money (50% going to campaign debt). You can tell that the rallies have been the highlight of his political career, maybe even his whole life. He can’t get enough of the adoring crowds. I’m not an extrovert but I suppose I can imagine the appeal for someone who is. But I’m not sure how that will help. I suspect it is more to take advantage of the dwindling opportunity to be in front of crowds as a standing president. He’ll likely continue some sort of rallies post-presidency but it won’t ever be quite the same. In any case, the White House will increasingly be an uncomfortable place to hang out once the transition teams start doing their thing.
Also between now and the end of the year, Mary Trump said he’ll likely break everything he can (pardoning inappropriately and signing a ridiculous number of executive orders). He might, but almost everyone who has been fired from his/her job tends to not work that hard between notification and end of contract. Whether or not he’ll let Ms. Biden in to measure for curtains remains to be seen. His former lawyer, Michael Cohen, seems to think he’ll just head to his place in Florida for the holidays and never return. Protocols be damned.
The question then is, what will he do thereafter? Speculation abounds. Cohen suggests he’ll start his own media company and spend almost all of his energy blasting Biden and his administration, continuing is tirades on Hillary and Obama. The cult-like following he has will provide him the backing necessary to keep it alive though it’s likely to diminish over time. All the while his legal counsel will be busy initiating and fending off lawsuits regarding his personal affairs. Not how I would want to spend my retirement.
There are not-so-subtle hints that Don Jr. is laying the foundation to throw his hat into the ring next election. Even though his dad was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he was crass and plain-spoken in a way that somehow appealed to his constituents. Don Jr., at least so far, seems to lack any charisma and plays mostly the privileged white kid that Trump supporters would have beaten up in high school. Will they nonetheless hitch their wagon to him in the cherished legacy of his father? It will be interesting. We know Nikki Haley, Mitt Romney and others are likely to throw their names in the hat as well. Rubio? Cruz should know better by now.
Anyway, back to patriarch of Trumpism. I was thinking that he should initiate a reality show. His family and entourage might be rather entertaining to follow, now that the Kardashians have stopped whatever it was they were doing. I’m only partially joking. I honestly think both they and their fans would love it. Even their enemies. In fact it seems like we’ve all been watching a reality show over these past four years. The media has sort of made caricatures of the gang at the White House. Everyone seems to be unable to talk about much else. As much as people say they’ve had enough, and can’t wait to not talk/think about them, my guess is that many would get sucked right back in. And it may be a better fit for them than ruling the free world. The harmful consequences on the poor would be much less – would cost them just a few hours staring at their TVs rather than their healthcare.
And then there’s the presidential library. He won’t allow an opportunity to put his name on a building pass him by. After seeing his place in NY, I doubt that the library will be very tasteful. For someone who is not so keen on books, it may be that the sign out front will need to have the word “library” in quotes. But he will definitely want a monument to himself.
However Trump decides to spend his time, much to the chagrin of his enemies, and many of his fellow Republicans, he likely won’t go away. He’ll need to be relevant. His people, who seem to accept anything he says or does without question, will give him that relevance. He can talk about his celebrity power in groping women. He can insult an American hero like John McCain. He can publicly mock a disabled man. He can call immigrants rapists. He can call racists good people and foster division in American in a way that no president has ever done. He can brazenly fail to come up with, or execute, a plan to manage the pandemic that has killed thousands. Etc. And nearly half of the US are somehow okay with this – particularly Christians who are supposed to have some sort of moral compass. It boggles the mind. God help American and God help the new president as the new chapter begins.
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