WHAT HAPPENS IF DONALD TRUMP REFUSES TO LEAVE THE WHITE HOUSE?
If the victory of Democrat Joe Biden was proclaimed Saturday by the media, Donald Trump still shows no desire on Monday to recognize his defeat in the presidential election. If he refused to leave the White House on January 20, it would be up to the secret services to expel him.
44 men preceded Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Of those 44 presidents, 35 left without scandal, regardless of their reason for leaving, eight died during their tenure and one - Richard Nixon - resigned. Donald Trump threatens to found a fourth category by denying the result of the ballot which crowned his rival Joe Biden and by refusing to leave his post.
While the media proclaimed the Democrat's victory on Saturday, Donald Trump is in fact still of the opinion that he has won, and won "by a lot", and to increase the number of legal proceedings to reconsider the ballots in certain key states during that his lawyers do not stop intervening in the media. Faced with this relentlessness, the question, in principle a bit surreal, can therefore come to be seriously posed: what will happen if Donald Trump refuses to leave the White House on January 20, the date of Joe's inauguration. Biden?
System flaws
On the site of The Independent, Joshua Sandman, professor of political science at the University of New Haven seeks to reassure: "In any case, we do not really need the White House. It's a symbol, it doesn't 'has no obligation to be the seat of power ".
Certainly. But it is hard to imagine the extent of the confusion triggered if the president "barricaded himself in the Oval Office" as Vanity Fair titled it. However, the American Constitution does not expressly provide for such a case, neither in its XIIth Amendment, which governs the modalities of the election of the President and its Vice-President, nor in its XXth Amendment which details the rules of enthronement.
On NBC News, Edward Foley, an academic from the faculty of Ohio, admitted on November 2, even before the election was held: "There are loopholes in the system unfortunately, and an exacerbated partisan spirit can put them in the spotlight. big day, making the country particularly vulnerable. "
Escorted out of the White House?
The calendar still has some certainties. On December 14, the electoral college, that is to say the 538 electors, will meet to appoint the president and his vice-president. On January 6, the Congress meeting in extraordinary session will open these votes, certifying the identity of the two appointees, and on January 20 they will take the oath, then beginning to exercise their new functions. For Jennifer Rodgers, CNN's legal consultant, things are therefore clear, as she explained before Donald Trump's defeat was official:
"My prognosis is that if Donald Trump loses the election, and fails in all of his legal proceedings, the new president will be sworn in and control the army, the means of justice and the various levels of administration, and may order him to leave the White House ".
However, in a statement released on Saturday, it is not towards the military that Andrew Bates, spokesperson for Joe Biden's campaign, cast his gaze: "The government of the United States of America is perfectly capable to escort any intruder out of the White House ".
Already on June 10, Joe Biden himself mentioned a possible blockage during an interview with presenter Trevor Noah: "I have absolutely no doubts that they will escort him out of the White House very diligently."
At the expense of the Secret Service
And this "they" could in no way refer to the military, according to what a former official who participated in the transition between Barack Obama and Donald Trump and an expert with Newsweek said. Using an image similar to that of Joe Biden's campaign spokesperson, the former official explained:
"The Secret Service would escort Donald Trump out of the White House, he would treat him like we would take care of any old man wandering in a property that does not belong to him."
Malcolm Nance, a secret service and counterterrorism specialist, extended to Newsweek: "If he says he won't leave the White House, they will physically evacuate him. They can even get their hands on him. And they will. could tell him that if he does not take the planned flight, he will have to pay out of pocket to board another ".
In other words, it appears that it is the secret services, responsible for four years to protect the 45th President of the United States, that would fall the task of expelling him if necessary. As for the Inauguration Day, that is to say the inauguration ceremony of his successor, no dilemma: Donald Trump can if he wishes to make a bad face and not attend, the presence of the ex-president is not necessarily required.
The Nancy Pelosi parade
There remains one last dimension. It is on January 6 therefore that Congress will have to certify the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. On this date, the Senate will also still be chaired by Mike Pence, Donald Trump's vice-president.
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Now, let's admit that for reasons X or Y, such as an indecision of the electoral college for example, the legislators are unable to validate these two new names. The two American institutions would have the parade here, as noted by NBC News. Nancy Pelosi would become interim President of the United States, on condition that she retained her post as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Even in the current turbulent and unpredictable context, however, this eventuality remains highly unlikely.
