What will happen to Donald Trump when his term ends?
Even if the acting president of the United States has not yet admitted his defeat in the elections, that does not mean that he can remain in the White House forever. But what awaits Donald Trump after his tenure?
It's been more than a week since Americans went to the polls and elected Joe Biden, the former Democratic vice president, as the 46th president of the United States. Two months before he took office, Biden is already entering his new role: he has spoken with health experts about a new plan against the coronavirus and has received phone calls from heads of government in Berlin, London and Paris.
But what will happen to the current head of the US government, who still has no intention of publicly admitting that he has lost the election? If there is no surprise inconvenience, although with this president you never know, Donald Trump's time in the White House expires on January 20, 2021. And then what?
A mountain of debt
Some observers suspect that the tenacity with which Trump clings to the presidency - including attempts to obstruct first the electoral process and then the recount - has a particular reason: Without office, he would lose his immunity. "His charge of him is what keeps him out of prison," historian Timothy Snyder told The New Yorker magazine before the election.
In September, The New York Times reported that Trump had debts of more than 400 million dollars (the equivalent of 340 million euros) - a large part of them with the German bank Deutsche Bank - and that this sum had to be paid in the next four years.
A few days before the US election, Deutsche Bank officials told the Reuters news agency that a defeat by Trump would make it easier for the bank to obtain repayment of loans that had been personally issued to him - possibly through foreclosure. .
Deutsche Bank itself was already in the spotlight for its questionable practices. The aforementioned managers said a defeat would open the possibility of closing Trump's accounts and could end a business relationship that has brought the financial institution a persistent bad image in the press and unwanted attention from the political sector. Deutsche Bank has declined to comment on the nature of its relationship with Trump now that Biden is president-elect.
In addition, Trump is facing a demand that he repay money he received as a local tax refund. It is about $ 72 million, which he had received in 2010 for alleged losses of $ 1.4 billion from 2008 and 2009.
The family business
The American president continues to own more than 500 companies, including hotels, resorts and golf clubs, something that he did not hide during his presidency. It is true that the current management of this conglomerate, known as the Trump Organization, has been in the hands of Trump's children since he took office. However, he still has access to the accounts. Democrats in Congress have always viewed this as a conflict of interest, accusing Trump of allowing potential deals to influence his foreign policy and of using the office of president for personal financial gain.
In fact, it emerged that lobbyists seeking Trump's attention were staying at his hotels and a Chinese state-owned company won a multi-million dollar contract to build a Trump golf course in the UAE when the US trade war and China was already in full swing.
As a former president, Trump could once again take a more active role in the corporation named after him. But the conglomerate is primarily involved in real estate and hotels, and Forbes business magazine speculated that the coronavirus crisis could have hit the Trump Organization hard. According to Forbes, the group's value fell by about 1 billion, to $ 2.1 billion, between March 1 and March 18, 2020.
Furthermore, while the presidency may have provided Trump with marketing opportunities for his companies in some respects, it damaged the Trump brand in others. The City Realty real estate portal has calculated that the prices of buildings owned by Trump in New York, where he is considered extremely unpopular, have fallen 25 percent in the last four years. As a result, Trump's name has been removed from the facade of some apartment buildings.
"The family business with real estate and hotels could decline," Trump journalist and biographer Michael D'Antonio tells DW. "This is a very difficult business, and the brand has suffered the most in the luxury segment," he adds.
Wave of lawsuits
Under a US Justice Department ruling from 1973 - when the Watergate scandal toppled President Richard Nixon - the courts cannot prosecute sitting presidents. But once he leaves the White House, Trump will lose his immunity from the presidency and face a flood of lawsuits that have accumulated over the past four years.
In New York, for example, both civil and criminal investigations are underway into Trump's business practices. The president also faces accusations from women alleging sexual abuse. In addition, a scandal related to payments of money in exchange for silence, could fall on Trump; For that reason, his former attorney Michael Cohen ended up behind bars in 2019. According to the ruling, Cohen had violated campaign rules by paying two women to be silent about an affair with Trump when the Republican was a candidate. At the time, Cohen testified that Trump had instructed him to pay.
Trump may try to use his constitutional rights as president to obtain a pardon before he leaves office. However, no president has ever tried to forgive himself before, and it is unclear whether such a move would be legally valid. However, when Biden is president, he too could pardon Trump, as US President Gerald Ford did in 1974 with Nixon after his resignation.
Either way, however, the US President only has the right to grant clemency in cases subject to federal law. At the individual level of the US states, Trump would therefore have no protection from prosecution once he is no longer in office. Only time will tell what this means in practice. "Throughout his life, he always managed to get out of court," says D'Antonio, Trump's biographer. And he remembers: "He always managed to get out of the trials or pay as little as possible when justice finally caught up with him."
