What next for Trump? Golf, Twitter and perhaps another run?
08 November, 2020
When networks projected he previously lost his bid for reelection to Joe Biden, President Donald Trump was the game of golf. He'll soon have plenty additional time to take pleasure from the links if he so desires.
But if there's one continuous for Trump, it really is his love of the limelight and few expect this most unusual of presidents to pursue a traditional post-White House life of public reticence, reflective memoir-writing and occasional charitable events.
He will lose the keys to the White House however, not his log-in on Twitter, where Trump and his itchy fingers could still wield powerful control over his Republican Party.
Some allies have already spoken of Trump planning a rematch in 2024. Only 1 other president, Grover Cleveland, has served non-consecutive terms, winning in 1892 after narrowly losing reelection four years earlier.
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said with understatement that Trump -- who has refused to concede and made unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud -- "doesn't like losing."
"I'd absolutely expect the president to remain involved with politics and would absolutely put him on the shortlist of individuals who will probably run in 2024," he told an Irish think tank. "He's an extremely high-energy 74-year-old."
Trump's children have made clear that they are still demanding loyalty from Republicans.
"The total insufficient action from virtually each of the '2024 GOP hopefuls' is pretty amazing," Donald Trump Jr tweeted on Thursday.
He called out by name Senator Lindsey Graham, a former Trump critic turned supporter who coasted to reelection. Hours afterward, Graham was on Trump's favorite Fox News show pledging money for the president's legal defense and repeating unsubstantiated accusations of election irregularities.
The thrice-married New York-born hotel developer and television celebrity has made no secret that he dreams about some comforts of his pre-White House days.
"I had a good life. I had the greatest life," Trump said in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in his final campaign rally.
His main product to invest in that lifestyle has been his own name. According to his disgraced former lawyer Michael Cohen, the 2016 presidential run itself was conceived as a "branding opportunity" -- until he unexpectedly won.
Trump had rebuilt his public profile in the 2000s as the host of reality TV series "Celebrity Apprentice" carrying out a string of bankruptcies.
The president has hinted about seeking to start a "Trump TV" brand as he has increasingly complained about Fox News, accusing the channel that helped fuel his rise to be insufficiently right-wing.
Viewers, he tweeted, "want an alternative now. So do I!"
And no-one can deny Trump has the gift of the gab.
At his innumerable rallies, he held large crowds in a kind of mesmerized attention with stream-of-consciousness shifts from conspiracy theories to jokes to pet peeves, like his peculiarly passionate criticism of feeble water pressure in bathroom faucets.
And he includes a potential readymade vehicle for the project in the type of openly Trump-supporting cable channels One America News and NewsMax TV -- current minnows a Trump takeover could become giants.
Believe it or not plausible is a scenario where Trump is embroiled in serious legal problems.
Prosecutors in NY already are probing Trump's hush money payment to a porn star, his tangled business dealings and mysterious accounting practices. Then there are those old rape and other sexual assault allegations.
As president, Trump is largely protected from prosecution. Some have speculated that he might again challenge accepted norms by trying to issue a pre-emptive pardon to himself.
Eight Trump associates, including men who served as his campaign managers, legal professional and national security advisor, have been completely indicted or imprisoned for serious crimes including over the 2016 campaign's links to Russia.
Or, just maybe, Trump will want to get away from everything.
However implausible this sounds, he has dropped a few hints.
In June at the White House he mused about going for a road trip in an RV along with his former model wife Melania.
Less romantic but equally heartfelt, he paused mid-speech throughout a campaign rally in Pennsylvania to admire parked trucks.
"Nice trucks," the president said. "You think I possibly could hop into one of these and drive it away? I'd want to do it, just drive the hell out of here. Just get the hell out of the."
Source: japantoday.com