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Trump is out, but he’ll continue to whine

Friday night the Supreme Court decided not to take up Donald Trump’s Hail Mary, a Texas-originated lawsuit contesting the election procedures in four other states and seeking to transfer responsibility for deciding the election results to their legislatures. More than half the Republicans in the House of Representatives and 17 or so other states backed this ridiculous “press release masquerading as a lawsuit.” The Electoral College is now set to cast its votes tomorrow in favor of President-elect Biden.

The drama however still won’t be over. January 5 Georgia will conduct a run-off election for two Senate seats. That will determine which party will control the upper house. January 6 the electoral votes will be considered in a joint session of Congress. PBS describes the process there:

If at least one member of each house objects in writing to some electoral votes, the House and Senate meet separately to debate the issue. Both houses must vote to sustain the objection for it to matter, and the Democratic-led House is unlikely to go along with any objections to votes for Biden. Otherwise, the votes get counted as intended by the states.

I suppose we can expect some objections from the Republicans, if only to delay the inevitable, but the results won’t change. Joe Biden will be inaugurated January 20.

Donald Trump will continue whining. He has two purposes:

1. To maintain control over the Republican base and party (two sides of the same coin).
2. To raise money that he can use for ostensibly political purposes, including hiring family members as “consultants.”

I doubt he will be able, even if willing, to run in 2024, as he is promising to do. He is not physically fit and will be 78 by the time of the 2025 inauguration. Yes, that is Biden’s age, but Biden is seemingly in a lot better shape. Trump will be thoroughly tied up with legal and financial difficulties by then. But he’ll want to be in a position to “forecast the election lights,” possibly to Don Jr.

Trump’s refusal to retire quietly to bookwriting and elder statesmanship, as American presidents generally do, is understandable. He couldn’t write a book if he tried, though he could hire a ghost writer as he has in the past. Statesmanship requires concern with the ship of state that he entirely lacks. His sole concerns are with himself and his family, particularly the related bank accounts. Those require him to remain in the limelight.

That raises the question of what he will do during the next 39 days. He has already announced troop withdrawals from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia and is flying B52s to the Gulf. The mixed message–he wants out of the Middle East but wants to kick Iranian butt for failing to respond to his thousand overtures offering a return to negotiations–is just one more incoherent moment in four years of incoherence. Nor is it likely that conditions for withdrawal from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia happen to be right precisely at the moment Trump is leaving office.

Once again, the country’s interests are being sacrificed for the sake of Trump’s. He wants to be able to claim he ended wars. But there is precious little reason to believe that American interests will be well-served by the withdrawals, which come without adequate diplomatic preparation. Zal Khalilzad was trying hard in Afghanistan to get a settlement that might hold after US withdrawal, but he has had the carpet pulled out from under him prematurely.

Trump is out come January 20, but he’ll continue to whine. I’m hoping the media learns to ignore him.