What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Tonitrus]

I wonder how long after Trump leaves office he will declare he is building a Trump Tower Moscow.

That will probably depend on whether or not he is receiving those former-president security briefings.

[Eddie Teach]

There has to be some check on the pardon power, can't there be?  If Trump chooses to pardon every single person in federal prisons, just for lols, surely there is a counter for that?

Just because there should be, doesn't mean there is.

The only counter to a rogue President is impeachment.

Outside of the law, what counter is there?  Surely there are situations that were not adequately foreseen in law, and to follow the letter would amount to a ritualistic suicide.  If an asteroid is coming for us, and the law does not foresee a quick enough legal response to allow us to launch nukes at the asteroid, I'm sure we'll just go and do that anyway, rather than suffer extinction.  There has to be a point in everyone's mind where you just go "okay, yes, that's what the law says, but we'll just pretend it doesn't because surely the intent of the law was not to force us to do something obviously idiotic".

In the asteroid scenario, there won't be a debate about the need. Extrajudicial actions depend on consensus, or near it.

[Barrister]

https://twitter.com/VP/status/1351631964843999232

Mike Pence farewell tweet from the official @VP handle (which will be turned over to Harris tomorrow) - several pictures of Pence with his wife and what I presume is his family.

Not pictured in any of them - Trump.

[katmai]

Hawley is a fuckstick

[The Brain]

Hawley is a fuckstick

Gee, thank you for the revelation, Jello-That-Walks.

[Barrister]

After 5pm in DC and still no pardons.

I had thought they'd come out this afternoon so they'd be quickly overlooked by Biden's inauguration tomorrow.

But instead - do you think he's going to issue them tomorrow morning to try and "win the news cycle"?

[Valmy]

Maybe he forgot and went golfing.

[Sheilbh]

I feel like he will struggle with the attention being on Biden. But I don't know what he'll do about it now he's lost Twitter which was always his easiest way to get attention.

[The Brain]

Trump personally doesn't give two shits about the pardons, so I guess getting him to spend time signing a paper is an uphill battle. Maybe he can be bothered, maybe not.

[grumbler]

I believe he can pardon entire categories of people.  Carter pardoned the Vietnam War draft dodgers for example.

Oh right.  Good call.

I heard on a Podcast yesterday that the commentator was glad it was a fairly narrow list of names that is being circulated, because if Trump was really in a "just let it burn" mood he could start granting clemency to whole swaths of criminals.  For example, release every violent and sex offender from Delaware just to fuck with Biden.

Is there a Federal prison with violent offenders in Delaware?

[Jacob]

Trump personally doesn't give two shits about the pardons, so I guess getting him to spend time signing a paper is an uphill battle. Maybe he can be bothered, maybe not.

If the people paying 2 million a pardon have already paid, why should he bother actually signing the document? What are they going to do, sue him from prison?

[Barrister]

I believe he can pardon entire categories of people.  Carter pardoned the Vietnam War draft dodgers for example.

Oh right.  Good call.

I heard on a Podcast yesterday that the commentator was glad it was a fairly narrow list of names that is being circulated, because if Trump was really in a "just let it burn" mood he could start granting clemency to whole swaths of criminals.  For example, release every violent and sex offender from Delaware just to fuck with Biden.

Is there a Federal prison with violent offenders in Delaware?

No idea.

But I did formulate it as "release every violent and sex offender from Delaware" - not those currently in prison there.

Like I said though, that (or something equally bonkers) would purely be a "burn it all down" kind of move.

[Barrister]

Trump personally doesn't give two shits about the pardons, so I guess getting him to spend time signing a paper is an uphill battle. Maybe he can be bothered, maybe not.

If the people paying 2 million a pardon have already paid, why should he bother actually signing the document? What are they going to do, sue him from prison?

The 2 mil (or whatever) didn't actually go right to Trump - it was paid to the hangers-on to try to convince Trump to give the pardon.  So who knows how many of those hangers-on actually had any meaningful pull with Trump.

[Jacob]

The 2 mil (or whatever) didn't actually go right to Trump - it was paid to the hangers-on to try to convince Trump to give the pardon.  So who knows how many of those hangers-on actually had any meaningful pull with Trump.

Even less of a reason for Trump to sign the pardons if he's in a huff for some reason or other.

[Sophie Scholl]

Trump hates New York and Cuomo far more than Delaware and Biden. He also fears them far more.