Sorry, folks, but voting Trump out isn't the same as getting rid of him. Trump is not going to stop his campaign to become America's Mussolini.
Even if we locked him up tight in the Prez Med Minimum Security Penitentiary -- the best we can hope for, given that he IS an ex-president -- he will still have a cell phone, which he'll use to rattle the cages of his gun-toting deplorables, arguing that he should be at the head of a government coup.
If we take away his cell phone for seditious messaging, we have Steve Bannon, who'll be more than happy to stand in for him. If Bannon is stuck in jail, there's a whole endless line of wanna-be Trump surrogates. How'd you like to see Ivanka or Jared Kushner as Trump's mouthpiece?
Worse yet, he may flee the country, vanishing like a Ghosn or an WWII movie prisoner, hiding in a metaphorical hay cart on his way to a country without an extradition treaty.
In other words, Trump may flee to Russia, where he'll do his tweeting and talking and messaging with the assistance of Putin's Internet Research Agency. He could try to create a civil war! His supporters would probably follow him even if he were living next door to Edward Snowden.
Dave Barry wrote up the flight-to-Moscow prospect as humor back in 2018. Problem is, it could actually happen. Trump would then try to spark a civil war from afar in hopes of a triumphant return.
It's going to be less than a comedy, though, if the Secret Service has to capture Trump and drag him into custody on the eve of Biden's inauguration. Better than letting him escape, no?
Is it reasonable to think that one of these scenarios could come true? What legal step would it take to keep Trump from leaving the country once Biden is sworn in? How could the U.S. stop Trump from destabilizing the country by energizing his base from outside the country?
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