What Trump could do after leaving the White House

Donald Trump will remain in office until January 20, when he will hand over the job to his successor and join the exclusive club of former US presidents. So what’s next for the politician and business mogul?

There’s a lucrative speaker loop, writing a memoir, planning a presidential library.

Jimmy Carter took care of humanitarian causes and George W. Bush a brush. But Trump has never been a traditional politician.

“Donald Trump has broken a lot of rules as president,” says Tim Calkins, professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

“There is no reason to think that Donald Trump will act like any former president we have seen.”

These are some of the possibilities.

It may not be the end of Trump’s political ambitions: He could always pull out a Grover Cleveland and run for a second term.

Cleveland is the only president to leave the White House and return four years later, assuming the top job in 1885 and then again in 1893.

The Constitution of the United States stipulates that “no person may be elected to the office of president more than twice,” but there is nothing about terms that must be consecutive.

And former aides have suggested that Trump could try to do just that.

“It would absolutely put him on the short list of people who are likely to run in 2024,” former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said recently.

Trump clearly loves campaign rallies and received 71.5 million votes in the election, a record total for a losing candidate and clearly demonstrating a significant base of support among the American public.

“He will leave the presidency with a brand in some ways as powerful as when he became president,” says Professor Calkins.

There has also been speculation that the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, is interested in running for the top job, a conjecture he has not tried to cut back.

Before he was a politician, Trump was a real estate mogul, reality star and brand ambassador, using his name for lucrative licensing deals.

You may want to pick up where you left off four years ago and go back to the business world.

The New York Times has reported that Trump has more than $ 400 million (£ 300 million) in loans maturing in the next few years, although he has said that represents “a small percentage” of his net worth.

The Trump Organization has numerous hotels and golf courses.

There are Trump brand properties in Mumbai, Istanbul, and the Philippines, and of course, Washington, DC, and golf courses in the US, UK, Dubai, and Indonesia.

But if that’s the course the president chooses in January, he will have a lot of work ahead of him.

Many of its business ventures are in the travel and leisure industry, which was severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Forbes has reported that his wealth could have taken a billion dollar hit due to Covid-19.

Based on two decades of tax documents viewed by the New York Times, the newspaper also reported “chronic losses and years of tax evasion,” saying it did not pay income taxes in 10 of the previous 15 years, “largely because it reported having lost much more money than I was making. “

Both the Trump Organization and the president criticized the report for being inaccurate.

Calkins said the president has shown time and again that he has an incredible ability to keep his mark “in the conversation” and remains strong, but not unchanged, for the presidency.

“It has become much more polarizing and much more distinctive, which somehow makes it less attractive as a trademark,” he says.

“Now, if you’re going to have a Trump hotel wedding, that’s really a statement – that wasn’t the case before the presidency.”

The now-closed eponymous brand of first daughter Ivanka Trump faced boycotts and was abandoned by some major retailers once she assumed her role as top adviser in the White House.

His sons Eric and Donald Jr oversaw the Trump Organization, the umbrella company for hundreds of Trump investments in real estate, brands and other businesses, during the presidency, but they are also deeply involved in their father’s political career.

“One of the things everyone will be thinking about is, ‘What is the best way forward? [for the family]? ‘”says Professor Calkins.

President Trump is no stranger to television, after a profitable stint on the reality show The Apprentice.

So there is a lot of speculation that his ambition is to get involved in the media, whether by launching his own channel or collaborating with an established conservative network.

“You will definitely have a potential audience,” says Henry Schafer, executive vice president of Q Scores Company.

Trump managed to build his brand as a “love-hate personality” like the Kardashians or Howard Stern, he says.

And Schafer hopes he will “turn to what works best for him: that’s controversy.”

“He thrives on controversy, he turns it in his favor, that’s his ‘MO’ [modus operandi]. ”

Possible partners are the One American News Network (OANN) or Newsmax cable networks.

OANN is the president’s favorite and vice versa, and has been described by Atlantic magazine as “part ringleader, part muse” of the channel.

Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, a conservative television channel, was once nicknamed “Trump Whisperer” by the Washington Post.

There could be other media or entertainment companies.

Presidents often sign book deals, with Barack and Michelle Obama striking a record joint deal that is supposedly worth $ 65 million, though that amount is rare. It is rumored that George W. Bush got a $ 10 million advance for his memoirs.

The Obamas also signed a multi-million dollar production deal with Netflix, and both Clintons have podcast deals.

Trump will have a presidential pension, and many other perks, when he leaves office.

The Former Presidents Act, enacted in 1958 to “maintain the dignity” of the office, provides benefits including an annual pension, which was $ 207,800 (£ 158,124) in 2017.

Former presidents are also eligible for lifetime Secret Service protection, health benefits, and office and personal travel expenses.

So Trump, now 74, could quietly decide to retire.

You could spend your days involved in philanthropic activities, increasing your bank balance on the speaker circuit, and planning your presidential library – archives and museums of a president and his administration, usually in his home state.

And he could fill up any spare time relaxing and golfing in Florida at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach retreat.

But Professor Calkins doesn’t see quiet life as a likely scenario for a man who spent so much time in the limelight.

“Donald Trump as a personality is not likely to fade away and I think we will continue to see the Trump brand in the world,” he says.

In October, Trump even speculated that if he lost the election, he would feel so bad that “he may have to leave the country, I don’t know.”