The question is not whether President Donald Trump is leaving. It’s how much destruction, revenge and chaos he will wreak on the way out the door.
Trump’s refusal to concede the election, delusional tweets about states tipping his way and failure to so far grant President-elect Joe Biden access to federal funding and resources to power up his administration mean America is in for a rocky 71 days. Trump may be a lame duck, but he retains the authorities of the presidency until noon on January 20, and his chokehold on the Republican Party was if anything strengthened by winning 70 million votes last week. So the President has the power — institutional and political — and apparently the motivation to create a great deal of disruption before returning to civilian life.
Attorney General William Barr, who has shown a propensity for using his own power to advance the President’s political aspirations, on Monday told prosecutors they should examine unsupported allegations of voting irregularities before states certify results in the coming weeks. The move will raise concerns of a fresh attempt by the Trump administration to overturn the will of voters, but like the President’s campaign, Barr’s memo failed to produce any evidence of fraud/ However, it did lead the top election crimes prosecutor to quit in protest over the change in policy.
And Trump waited only two days after the election was called for Biden to start exacting retribution on those he sees as enemies inside his administration.
He sacked Defense Secretary Mark Esper, apparently because he showed insufficient loyalty to the President’s political goals. And a senior administration official told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Esper is worried Trump will next fire CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray. The pair is said to be at risk for putting US national security ahead of the President’s desire to use the intelligence services to pursue his “deep state” conspiracy theories.
