Stopping Trump 2024
Close the gravy train and derail the Trump train
Since his loss, it’s a relief to not constantly check Twitter and news feeds to see what new idiocy Trump is saying and doing every nine minutes. I am down to maybe every hour or two. I'm hoping to cut back to once a day when he's out of the White House. Will we ever be free of him? I want to tell myself that Trump is irrelevant. I want to think that we can stop worrying about him. I want to ignore him. When he said we would never see him again if he lost, I wanted to believe that. In spite of knowing that he’s a pathological liar, my desire to believe that one lie of his is fierce.
Trump will never concede the election, but he says going to leave the White House, which is a relief to at least hear. So, I will say, "Thank you for that much, Trump. You are admitting that you will do one thing, that you would be forced to do anyway. Big favor." As much as some of us might like to fantasize that he’s going to jail, or that he will have to flee to Russia, those are not likely outcomes. Trump isn't going to disappear anytime soon.
He will keep capitalizing financially and politically off of his fight to overturn the election results. His focus will be on degrading our country with constant attacks and false allegations about voter fraud. He will have his revenge on his perceived enemies because his supporters will never give Biden "an open mind and a chance to lead." His supporters will keep their attention and focus on Trump. Trump has become a cult leader to them whether they will admit it or not.
His supporters will hear these and all of his future his claims, however insane and false, and they will believe him above all others. They won’t seek or believe any other information or evidence that contradicts him. If confronted with evidence, they will attack the source of the information. They've been trained and found competent at this one task.
Trump and his offspring may or may not be serious about their 2024 election plans, but he will almost certainly keep his campaign going. He will raise money. He will sell merchandise. He will and remain in the spotlight for as long as he can. Publicity and capital are what matters to him above all else.
There are long lists of laws Trump broke on his way to and through the Oval Office. So far, he has gotten away with all of them. But let’s take a look at the things that Trump (or his family, or anyone else like him to ever walk the face of the earth) most needs in place in order to hold and leave office home free again.
Congress failed to impeach him for any of his crimes, not even obstruction of justice. The remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors laid out in the constitution pointedly failed us. It seems that if the constitution doesn't work anymore, it would be nice if Congress would enact laws to ensure that a president can be indicted for breaking an actual law. For example, the illegal hush money payments to Trump’s mistresses pretty clearly turned Trump into an unindicted co-conspirator. Nothing happened to him. He broke campaign finance laws on his way into the oval office, and it didn't matter. It's nuts.
Perhaps the founding fathers really had no idea how divided, how irrational, and how power hungry members of congress could become. With few exceptions, self interest and fear of losing their elections if they betrayed Trump overrode their oath of office and their loyalty to the country.
Yet, rumors abound that (21) Republican senators are not fans of Trump. They won't say so in public, they are simply afraid of running afoul of him. It seems likely those members would want to work on reforms to avoid Trump2.0 whether it is from DJT, Jr, or from any unknown future despot. Maybe they don't want to do anything to be seen attacking Trump's aspirations, but maybe this is the chance they have to free themselves and the rest of us from his grip on power.
Here are 6 ways that Congress can stop Trump 2024:
1) All candidates seeking any independent or party nomination for the presidency must release 5 years of tax returns. Wouldn’t this alone end Trump's 2024 plans?
It is true that Trump’s taxes are likely going to be revealed (or more formally at least, not just leaked) soon due to legal challenges anyway, but the 5 year window could seriously damage the aspirations of Trump’s kids. His adult kids on his payroll are all engaged in wide-spread tax fraud with their father. According to NYT reporting, Trump paid Ivanka consulting fees, illegally writing off income as business expenses. The Trump family used their private compound and home to Eric and Don Jr., Seven Springs, in Westchester as a corporate write off. Incredulously, the Trump website states, "Today, Seven Springs is used as a retreat for the Trump family."
2) End any future nepotism for any administrations by updating the 1967 anti-nepotism law to specifically name the White House. Let's face it, we are doing most people a big favor by forcing them to tell their relatives it is illegal to hire them.
3) End the President’s ability to pardon political allies, themselves, and their families.
4) Ban pardons in advance. Trump is reportedly weighing the idea of pardoning himself before he leaves office. I don’t see how you can be pardoned before you are even indicted. Am I the only one to think this seems premature and should be illegal? It won't be the first time, and it seems like it is not illegal.
5) Disallow payments to any president’s corporate entities (even ones in a real blind trust) for secret service, military, or other government agency stays. Trump’s company has billed taxpayers over $1mil for his trips to his golf resorts on almost a weekly basis since he won the election. Cutting off the gravy train should end a lot of what he would stand to gain financially in another term. Once he can’t stay at his own resorts and rack up tremendous, bigly bills will the White House seem appealing to Trump? If the president wants to play golf or take a vacation, it should be at someone else’s property not one they own or share any interest in.
6) There should be a reasonable limit to the amount of leisure travel the president does, travel is up 12 times under Trump according to CREW. Another option is to just cap the budget for a reasonable number of trips in advance, going to Florida and Virginia and to other corporate locations over 1,500 times a year is not reasonable.
7) Require that any president have either dissolved or placed business assets into a true blind trust prior to swearing in. Trump has a habit of making claims that he will do things and then never doing them. He said he would become boring and presidential. He said he would release his taxes. He said he would put his businesses aside but he held onto them and claimed his children were in charge instead. If he actually had to do some of the things he said he would do - I don’t think he would really want to be the POTUS anymore.
Game over.
This list is not exhaustive. I can only hope these reforms and more already underway and that Congress is serious about ethics reforms. When we rely on standards that people follow out of tradition, eventually, those standards will become broken. Trump didn't break just one or two standards in the White House, it is time to ensure that doesn't happen again. If there is any real will to stop another disastrous Trump term, these reforms should come soon. You’d think there really should be the will to cooperate and reform in Congress at this point. But the shit show just never stops under McConnell. SOS Georgia.
About the Creator
Lisa Kroese
I'm a published poet and writer in Pasadena, CA. My writing has been published by Amoskeak, Jabberwock Review, The Sun, Yalobusha Review, and others. Find more of my writing at LisaKroese.com.
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How the UK Ended Up Building the World’s Most Expensive Railway
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By Fiaz Ahmed Brohi7 days ago in The Swamp
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