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After you step down as President of the United States, you can expect debt collection and multi-million dollar lawsuits.
Despite his defeat in the US presidential election, Donald Trump refuses to acknowledge the victory of his rival, Democratic candidate Joseph Biden, and is trying to challenge the vote in court.
However, he will most likely have to leave the White House after January 20 of next year, the day the new president takes office. On what to expect for Trump after his final departure from office, in the DW material.
Wave of lawsuits against Trump
In the course of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, the United States passed a law in 1973 that prohibits courts from bringing charges against the current head of state, but this law does not apply to former presidents.
Leaving the White House will strip Trump of presidential immunity, and then an avalanche of lawsuits that have accumulated during his four years in power may befall him.
New York State is investigating criminal and civil charges against the outgoing president.
We are talking, in particular, of financial fraud in Trump’s organization and illegal sponsorship of his election campaign. In addition, lawsuits were brought against him by women accusing him of sexual harassment.
Trump may also be an accessory to the scandal that sent his former lawyer Michael Cohen to prison in 2019 after paying two women to remain silent about his extramarital affairs with Trump, the then Republican presidential candidate. Cohen later stated that he paid these women on Trump’s orders.
It is possible that Trump, even before leaving the post of head of state, will try to use his constitutional powers and use the presidential right to forgive himself. However, so far there have been no such precedents in the history of the United States and it is unclear whether this step will be legitimate.
“He’s been Houdini his entire life on legal matters,” says DW Trump biographer and journalist Michael D’Antonio. “He managed to dodge lawsuits and secure minimum payments to settle the case when the government caught him.”
Deutsche Bank may require Trump to pay back loans
Some experts believe that Trump’s desperate attempts to stay in office for a second term are motivated by a desire to maintain immunity from any prosecution that the presidency gives him.
“The presidency saves him from jail and ruin,” Yale University history professor Timothy Snyder told The New Yorker a few days before the election.
An investigation by The New York Times in September found that Trump owed more than $ 400 million, mostly to his German lender Deutsche Bank, and will have to pay off debts over the next four years.
It will benefit Ukraine. World Press on Biden
A few days before the US elections, Deutsche Bank management told Reuters that if Trump were defeated, it would not be so embarrassing for creditors to demand repayment of loans, which Trump had personally guaranteed, or to recover his assets, which were guaranteed by loans.
However, after Biden’s election victory, Deutsche Bank declined to comment on its relationship with Trump.
What can Trump do after leaving the White House?
Currently, the current head of state owns more than 500 residential real estate units, including hotels, resorts, and golf clubs, which he has mentioned repeatedly over the past four years.
Day-to-day management of Trump’s main company, The Trump Organization, passed to his children after he took office, while Trump withheld access to his business assets.
Democrats viewed this as a conflict of interest and accused him of allowing potential trade deals to influence US foreign policy and using the presidency for personal gain.
In particular, the media has repeatedly written that some representatives of the government and business circles, seeking to win Trump’s favor, stayed at his hotels.
And a Chinese state-owned company won a multi-million dollar contract to build a golf course in the United Arab Emirates for Trump, despite the trade war between the United States and China.
After resigning, Trump could go back to running the Trump Organization, which controls areas of his business like real estate and hotels.
However, according to Forbes magazine, the company was hit hard during the coronavirus pandemic. Only for the period from March 1 to March 18, 2020, the damage could be from 1 to 2.1 billion dollars, the newspaper noted.
The City Realty real estate portal estimates that Trump’s property prices in New York, where he is extremely unpopular, have fallen 25 percent in the last four years. Even his name was removed from the facades of some residential buildings.
“The number of hotels and other properties owned by Trump could decrease,” says D’Antonio. “This is a very complex business and the brand is now less associated with luxury.”
Will Trump go on TV?
Old and. about. White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney expressed the view that Trump will remain on the political stage and will try to run again in the 2024 elections. However, there are other opinions as well.
“During the campaign, it was surprising how lively and energetic he was speaking in front of the public, so it’s pretty obvious what he likes,” says D’Antonio, who spent a lot of time in the White House interviewing Trump for his books. … “I would hope he would return to television.”
The biographer does not exclude that Trump capitalizes on his media connections and becomes a partner in a conservative media company or, perhaps, creates his own: Trump mentioned this option in 2016, when his electoral victory was not yet obvious.
According to Business Insider, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner “spoke directly” about the possibility in October 2020.
Trump’s television channel may be even more right-wing than the current conservative favorite Fox News. Tensions have escalated in recent months between Trump and Fox News, once the president’s spokesman.
Trump was reportedly angry that the station had done so little to challenge the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.
Source: DW Russian Service
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