After Washington’s embarrassment: these 4 scenarios are now possible

A pro-Trump protester tries to wash tear gas from her eyes.

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Shortly after the election result was certified by both houses of parliament, Donald Trump finally said what the world had long wanted to hear: “There will be a proper transfer of power on January 20,” said the president of The United States on Thursday morning through a spokesperson.

This is a first step out of the chaos that Trump unleashed with his speech in Washington yesterday. In his appearance in front of the White House, he called on thousands of gathered supporters to “march to the Capitol” and there sow pride in “weak Republicans.” For the first time in 207 years, a few madmen managed to break into the poorly guarded parliament building shortly after.

After Vice President Mike Pence and other high-ranking Republicans broke with Trump that night, four scenarios are now possible:

1) Trump resigns

In his statement published this Thursday morning, the president of the United States once again made it clear that he did not want to accept the electoral results. The “largest first term in American history” is drawing to a close. But the “fight” is only now beginning. Trump is indirectly indicating that he wants to run again in 2024. In the two weeks remaining until Joe Biden’s inauguration, his hands are tied without the backing of his vice president and sane Republicans in Congress. Trump could resign at any time, citing that the system had conspired against him. His angry followers would applaud him.

2) There is a rush for impeachment

As early as 2019, Democrats tried to remove Donald Trump from office in the so-called impeachment process. The accusation at the time was that the president had abused his position to demand political support from a foreign power. Specifically, Trump had threatened the President of Ukraine in a telephone conversation that he would cut US military aid to the country if Ukraine did not launch an investigation into the alleged corrupt machinations of Joe Biden’s son in the Eastern European country. The impeachment process failed in the Republican-dominated Senate. In the current circumstances, a new impeachment process against Trump would have a good chance of finding the necessary majorities in parliament.

3) Trump is declared unable to hold office with reference to the 25th Amendment to the Constitution and dismissed

Are you moving things right now? Vice President Mike Pence.

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The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution states that a president must resign temporarily or permanently from office if, for medical or other reasons, he is unable to “fulfill” his obligations. This happened from time to time in the past, for example when George W. Bush had to undergo an operation at the hospital and handed over the office to his vice president for a few hours. However, it would also be possible to apply the constitutional article without the approval of the President. This has never happened in the history of the United States. But if Vice President Mike Pence and a majority of the ministers declared the president “incapable,” Trump would be removed from office. You could raise an objection. Parliament would then have to decide within 21 days whether the president could return. Until then, Trump would no longer be in the White House in one form or another.

4) Trump clings to power

Most Americans agree that scenes like this should not be repeated for the next two weeks.

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Of course, it is also possible that none of the above variants will occur and Trump will continue his dangerous game. Officially, he remains president of the United States until noon on January 20. At the moment, his favorite platform, Twitter, has prohibited him from speaking. Soon, however, your account will be activated again and will report word for word. The riot in Washington, in which four people lost their lives, was a preview of what the worst-case scenario of the last two weeks of the Trump era could look like.