Donald Trump: The mugshot heard 'round the world
Donald Trump likely will not concede if he loses the November 2024 election, predicts longtime Alabama attorney and political observer Donald Watkins, In fact, Watkins reports, Trump has planned for several years on becoming "president for life" -- and would not have voluntarily left office after losing in 2020 if Vice President Mike Pence had not refused at the 11th hour to go along with the plan.
Watkins, drawing on experience from a legal career of almost 50 years (plus several stints in politics), says Trump's plan almost certainly will remain in place going into his likely 2024 rematch with Joe Biden. Under the headline "Trump Wanted to Be President for Life; Now He is Fighting for His Life," Watkins notes that he saw Trump's plan coming roughly five weeks before the 2020 election and believes it likely would have succeeded had Pence not gotten an attack of conscience and bailed out. From Watkins post, published today (8/25/23):
On September 27, 2020, I published an article titled, “The Plan is Set: Trump’s Not Leaving Office.” In the article, I predicted that Trump would try to stay in the White House even if he lost the 2020 election.
Trump lost the election.
The only factor that I did not foresee was former Vice President Mike Pence’s last-minute refusal to participate in the plan.
After Trump lost the election, Pence had the courage to say “No” to Trump's diabolical plan to remain in office.
Pence's single act of courage on January 6, 2021, set in motion everything that is happening to Donald Trump and his co-defendants today.
Watkins turns back the clock to reveal his thinking as Trump vs. Biden I approached in 2020:
Here is my article from September 27, 2020, which was five weeks prior to the election:
“Whether he wins or loses in the November 3, 2020, election, the plan is set – President Donald J. Trump will not voluntarily leave the White House. If he loses the election to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Trump will declare a state of emergency due to alleged widespread voter fraud, and he will impose martial law until new elections can be held.
"Without any supporting evidence, Trump has already cast doubt about the integrity of mail-in balloting that has been used by many states for decades. Four years ago, Trump claimed that up to 11 million illegal aliens voted for Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, in 2016. He appointed a special commission to investigate his voter-fraud claim. The commission was disbanded months later without finding any evidence of widespread voter fraud.
"Trump has seized ironclad control of the infrastructure he needs to remain in power, should he lose the election. He has a dictatorial grip over the U.S. military, the U.S. Attorney General, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals, Homeland Security, the national-intelligence agencies, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Postal Service, The Federal Reserve Board, the Republican Party, old Confederate states' governors, the U.S. Supreme Court, Wall Street (courtesy of the $6 trillion these companies received from the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve in loans and grants since March 2020), Fox News, the Voice of America news agency and a host of other government agencies and major corporations that form the backbone of America.
America’s Oligarchy
"Contrary to popular belief, America is a guided democracy that is controlled by an oligarchy of wealthy corporations and super-rich individuals. We call them the “1 Percenters.” Their wealth is measured every day on Wall Street and is protected by Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, and every U.S. president (some better than others).
"In 2010, in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court gave wealthy corporations the legal right to buy elected officials in America, which they promptly did. This is why tax laws favor the rich and why wealthy corporations always get bailed out first in times of great economic crisis. In short, the “1 Percenters” run America and Donald Trump is their guy.
"Prior to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in America in February, Trump was exploring a proposal to extend his term in office by repealing the 22nd Amendment, which limits a president to two terms in office. Trump was inspired to extend his term in office by the example he saw with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both men shepherded changes to their countries’ constitutions that effectively made them presidents for life. Both men are close friends with Trump and have mentored him in the art of governing a nation with a dictatorial grip.
The Plan to Remain in Power
"Trump continues to trail Joe Biden in the polls, although the race has tightened since the political-party conventions last month. Should he lose the election, Trump knows that his base of diehard supporters and the “1 Percenters” will back his plan to remain in office. To them, the end result justifies the means necessary to achieve it.
"In addition to declaring a state of emergency, Trump will use federal agents and troops to enforce martial law in America, particularly in cities and states that are governed by Democrats. Trump has already declared these areas as hot zones for violence, rioting, and lawlessness. Many of these places are “sanctuary cities” of undocumented migrants.
"Trump would not be the first U.S. president to use the military for the mass incarceration of American dissenters. President Richard Nixon’s head of the U.S. military police devised a written plan in 1970 for the mass incarceration of Black people who were believed to be violent civil-rights protestors. The designated detention centers were located around the U.S. on military bases.
"Trump’s ace in the hole is the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2000, the Court ushered George W. Bush into the presidency on a 5-4 vote in the case of Gore v. Bush. The Court’s vote was split along partisan lines. Trump’s two Supreme Court nominees assure him of at least a 5-4 vote in his favor on the declared state of emergency and imposition of martial law."
If the preceding 10 paragraphs sound grim to you -- they sound horrifying to me (and I've already written about this issue once) -- Watkins indicates we had better brace ourselves for a form of replay in a little more than a year -- at least in terms of Trump's refusal to admit defeat. The notion of a president refusing to concede a lost election once would have sounded absurd, unthinkable, to many Americans. But we are talking about Donald Trump here -- a maligrant narcissist and likely psychopath who has changed our country for the worse in countless ways. He cares only about himself, without a concern for America's laws or traditions -- even its Constitution. And he has duped a significant swath of the American electorate to ride over a cliff with him, like a scene out of Thelma & Louise. (The film's iconic closing scene can be viewed at this link.)When that metaphorical car leaves the ground and takes flight, America's "Great Experiment" with democracy will be over -- our country, as we know it, will be over; our standing in the world will be at an all-time low, probably never to recover. We will have become a glorified banana republic.
Trump, of course, does not currently hold office, as he did in 2020, and that likely will make any effort to cling to the presidency more difficult. But our guess is that Trump and his allies have a plan in place that will align with his desire to become "president for life."
Is this an overreaction on my part? I hope so, but I doubt it. Watkins appears to see a "Bad Moon Rising," and he urges Americans to take it seriously:
While other political analysts talk about polls, I discuss predictable political outcomes. Donald Trump has shown Americans that he will say and do whatever is necessary to win in the political arena. His mentors in the political thicket of strong-arm government are Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. There is nothing Democrats can do to stop Trump from implementing his default plan.
On August 2, 2015, I published the first article in American journalism that predicted Donald Trump’s victory in 2016. Political pundits and TV talking heads dismissed this prediction. Trump won the 2016 election.
Today, I am predicting that Trump will not leave office if he loses the November 3rd election. The ruling oligarchy in America will back Trump’s decision to remain in office. This experience, like many others during the Trump presidency, will be a first in this nation’s history.”
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This is how and why America has reached this tragic point in our nation's history. No U.S. president has ever tried to remain in office after he lost the presidential election. Donald Trump is the first and only one to try this unfathomable stunt.
(In line with Watkins' thinking, and considering the grip Trump seems to have on MAGA voters, we suspect no one should be surprised if Trump refuses to concede upon losing to Biden in 2024. Who knows what might happen from there? Trump has a knack for creating "firsts" for the American presidency, and this would be another one.)
Now, Donald Trump and 21 co-defendants in four criminal cases related to the scheme to keep Trump in power are suffering the consequences of their failed scheme in unimaginable ways.
Meanwhile, Trump's MAGA supporters are vilifying Mike Pence for elevating the U.S. Constitution above his loyalty to Donald Trump.
Welcome to the MAGA cult and Donald Trump's America!
