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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump will leave the White House, but he will not quietly fade away.
After failing in his legal efforts to reverse his Nov. 3 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, who on Monday won the state-by-state Electoral College vote that formally determines the U.S. presidency, Trump will return to life private on January 20. with a variety of opportunities.
They include another run in the White House in 2024 or new activities in the media. But they are clouded by potential legal risks and business challenges.
Only one thing is for sure: Trump’s thirst to be the center of attention will ensure that he does not follow in the footsteps of previous presidents like George W. Bush, who quietly devoted himself to painting, or Jimmy Carter and his global activism.
Trump’s future, like his presidency, is likely to be loud, cheeky and brash.
Nor will it be completely under your control. He faces a number of civil and criminal legal actions related to his family’s businesses and activities before taking office, which could be accelerated once he loses the legal protections afforded to the occupant of the Oval Office.
The real estate developer turned reality TV star is considering multiple moves to keep the spotlight.
Trump, who has refused to admit his electoral defeat and continues to make unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud, has told his allies that he is considering another run for the White House.
He has even talked about not attending Biden’s inauguration and announcing his career in 2024 on that day, a move that would allow him to continue the raucous campaign rallies he thrived on in 2016 and 2020.
That would complicate life for a long list of other Republicans considering a 2024 candidacy, including Vice President Mike Pence, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Senators Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, who would have to weigh whether to take on Trump. .
But it would be the kind of rule-breaking move that Trump enjoys. The Constitution of the United States allows presidents to be elected twice and terms do not have to be consecutive.
Grover Cleveland is the only American president to have served two non-consecutive terms. He left the White House in 1889 after being defeated for reelection and returned in 1893.
Trump has already formed a political action committee that will allow him to raise money and influence the party after he leaves office, whether he becomes a candidate or not.
Trump’s desire to retain his political influence was also evident in his recent endorsement of his close ally Ronna McDaniel for another term as chair of the Republican National Committee.
Members of the RNC will vote in late January on whether to keep McDaniel as president in an early test of how powerful Trump remains and how willing Republicans are to subjugate the party to his wishes.
GO BACK TO TV?
Trump, a former star of the reality series “The Apprentice,” has also discussed various potential startups in the media to keep him in the limelight, advisers said, including a television station or social media company to compete with those to the ones he felt betrayed him.
A television news channel would take on Fox News, a close Trump ally who has drawn his ire since the election for not providing enough support. Advisers described Trump as particularly furious at Fox News for his election night decision to call the undecided state of Arizona for Biden when the outcome was still uncertain.
Biden eventually won Arizona, but most of the other networks didn’t make the call for days afterward.
Trump could collaborate with existing conservative cable networks One America News Network or Newsmax, which have largely focused on positive portrayals of Trump.
Trump has also discussed with his advisers a plan to start a social media company to compete with Twitter Inc, which has repeatedly posted content warnings in its tweets that make unsubstantiated allegations of widespread voter fraud.
But Trump faces significant financial challenges, including a hit to his trademark given his polarized presidency and holdings in the real estate, travel and leisure industry due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Forbes estimated in September that Trump’s net worth had fallen roughly $ 600 million in the previous year, to $ 2.5 billion. The New York Times reported that Trump had personally guaranteed $ 421 million of his companies’ debts.
LEGAL JEOPARDY
Once he leaves office, Trump will also have to fight a number of legal issues, all more threatening because he will lose the legal protections afforded to a sitting president.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has been conducting a criminal investigation of Trump and the family business, the Trump Organization. The investigation originally focused on secret money payments made before the 2016 election to two women who said they had had sexual encounters with Trump, which the president has denied.
But Vance, a Democrat, suggested in recent court filings that the investigation had been expanded and could now focus on bank, tax and insurance fraud, as well as falsifying business records. Trump has called the case politically motivated harassment.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, also a Democrat, has an active tax fraud investigation into Trump and the family business that began after her former attorney Michael Cohen told Congress the president inflated asset values to save money on loans and insurance and deflated them to reduce them. real estate taxes.
The Trump Organization has argued that the case is politically motivated. The inquiry is a civil investigation, which could result in financial penalties but not jail time.
Trump also faces separate defamation lawsuits related to alleged sexual assaults, which he denied, brought by two women: E. Jean Carroll, a former writer for Elle magazine, and Summer Zervos, a 2005 contestant on “The Apprentice.”
Mary Trump, the president’s niece, also filed a lawsuit accusing him and two family members of fraud and conspiracy to deprive her of their share of the family’s real estate empire.
Trump could also face criminal prosecution initiated by the United States Department of Justice on federal charges of income tax evasion. The New York Times recently reported that Trump paid $ 750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017.
Trump rejected the Times’ findings, and it is unclear whether he broke the law. Any federal prosecution would be contentious; Biden has been cautious on the issue and questioned the value of such a prosecution, but says it would not interfere with the Justice Department’s judgment.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, John Whitesides, Jan Wolfe, and Makini Brice in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Peter Cooney)
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