They want to have all of their money and remain in power, and spend the money.Congress returns to Washington today in an unsettled political environment that will serve as the backdrop for a robust year-end push on spending, taxes and, potentially, raising the debt limit. In the old days, if you weren’t killed by your political foes, you took a billion dollars, went off to the French Riviera, and disappeared. “There’s been a change in the way autocrats and wannabe autocrats like Donald Trump have ended their careers. “I’ve had a lot of experience with autocrats, despots and third-world potentates, so I got to see how these people behave,” Nance said. Ultimately, Trump will spend his final days in the White House trying to avoid looking like a loser or a failure, analysts say. He’s willing to do a lot of stuff for Trump, but he didn’t want to go to jail. “Why has the postmaster general kind of backtracked?” Stevens asked of Louis DeJoy, the Republican donor who many believe was installed in an attempt to cripple the mail-in vote. “What will stop him is fear of prison,” Stuart Stevens, a veteran Republican consultant, told Salon. Not all experts believe a Trump “lame duck” presidency will be completely volatile. “Americans who want to see the rule of law restored and strengthened must be ready to fight for it, in the courts and in the streets if necessary, peacefully but persistently, because there is little doubt that Trump and his supporters will not go quietly.” “Trump will likely spend his last months in a flurry of self-dealing, tossing out pardons and trying to discredit his opponents and the system itself,” said Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion and chair of the Human Rights Foundation. “Anything which benefits him personally, anything that benefits what he believes is his brand, he will do.” “He’s a compromised person, a broken asset of a foreign power, and has been under the thrall, the pay, or most likely the debt of Vladimir Putin,” Nance said. That means Trump has a shortening window of opportunity to prepare for whatever legal consequences may await. Trump will soon lose the protection of Bill Barr, the attorney general whom critics have accused of acting like the president’s personal lawyer. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating Trump and his business empire for possible criminal bank and insurance fraud, but has been unable to take action while he is in office. There will be new scrutiny on Trump’s own financial dealings. We’re going to find out … whether they rise up en masse and say we don’t accept this, Donald Trump’s our man, and they start parading and taking over boards of elections.”ĭisgraced Trump associates who have fallen foul of the law could also be beneficiaries of the outgoing president’s benevolence, among them his former campaign chair Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon, the architect of Trump’s 2016 victory currently facing fraud charges. “All these 100-truck convoys may start marching like they’re going into Mosul,” he said. Nance’s main concern is the possibility of civil unrest, from Trump supporters including armed militias, white supremacists and other activists fired up by perceived calls-to-arms by their leader. While a flurry of executive actions to further roll back environmental and industrial regulations is possible, analysts believe a beaten Trump will be less motivated by politics and more focused on himself. He has always fixed things in his life, and he now believes he owns the American judicial system.” “He expects the supreme court to cover for him. Absolutely no question about that,” Nance said. Self-preservation in the face of mounting legal and financial pressures will be paramount, Nance believes, with the president pushing his executive and constitutional powers to the limit or beyond. Nance’s fears are based as much on Trump’s past record, such as failing to take any steps to counter the spread of Covid-19, as what he may yet do. Who knows what a cornered autocrat will do?” He may decide he wants to go out with a bang, he may decide he will not accept the election result. “We’re likely to see the greatest political temper tantrum in history. “If Trump loses power he’ll spend his last 90 days wrecking the United States like a malicious child with a sledgehammer in a china shop,” said Malcolm Nance, a veteran intelligence analyst and political author, speaking before the result of the election was known. But Trump’s defeat also sets the clock ticking on the remaining weeks that some analysts believe could be the most dangerous period in American history, the time before the 20 January inauguration of Joe Biden during which a vengeful president can wreak havoc if he choses to do so.
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