One way it might end
November 18, 2018
The Washington Post reports that the President and his family are huddled with advisers as they decide what to do about the onslaught of probes and subpoenas that have been trying them since the results of the midterm elections. The somewhat expected blue wave swept Democrats to power in the house, but shockingly they also gained a majority in the Senate, picking up seats in Arizona, Nevada and Florida.
November 19, 2018
Independent counsel Robert Mueller issues a report that lays out a case that Donald Trump obstructed justice and was culpable in a conspiracy to use data obtained by Russian hackers to aid his campaign. The report seeks to indict Donald Trump Jr. as guilty of lying to federal investigators. Jared Kushner is held to be liable under federal anti-corruption laws for the Saudi / Indonesian loan to Kushner Companies. Congress begins drafting articles of impeachment while the Justice Department under a newly invigorated Rod Rosenstein, unchecked by a vengeful Jeff Sessions, begins to build a criminal case against the Trumps.
November 20, 2018
The President leaves to his New Jersey golf course before beginning his Thanksgiving vacation. His sons are in New York as is Melania Trump with Baron and Ivanka and Jared are planning a visit to Europe this week while Melania might finally make a quiet trip to visit with her family in Sevnica. This is earlier than expected and leads to the usual media eye rolling about his hypocrisy in calling Obama a golfing president as well as stories about how he is embattled.
November 21, 2018
The President gives a very brief press conference at Bedminster. Choice quotes include “this illegal witch hunt ignores all the good that I have done for this country”, “the democrats are stealing the government, there is a massive illegal deep state conspiracy against me”, and “our people are being oppressed, really treated very badly”.
The press pool is told not to expect any more briefings as the President aims to spend a quiet week away from current events. The secret service is unusally strict about enforcing this.
That evening a cavalcade arrives at Bedminster carrying Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon and KellyAnne Conway. A quiet dinner is held. Much later the same set of black SUVs that brought them leaves, at high speed and with little announcement. An hour and a half later they are at Newark Airport where a Trump personal jet is parked. The flight plan that was filed indicates a trip to the LjubLjana. The plane takes off at 0030hrs and clears US airspace without incident.
It lands in Ljubljana, refuels, and then files an addendum to its flight plan.
November 22, 2018
The mostly empty press lounge at Bedminster is sparsely populated and there’s only one reporter from CNN and another from Reuters swapping stories over bad wine while they hope for a presidential tweet storm that they can report on standing in front of the golf course office. The CNN reporter gets a call from a colleague
“Hey, are the Trump boys at Bedminster ?”
No, it’s just Trump everyone else is in NYC, aren’t you there?
“Yeah, they were supposed to show up to some NRA fundraising event for big-game hunters, but they seem to have bailed”
That’s weird, nothing those boys like better than posing with dead animals. Where’s everyone else?
“That’s the weird thing, the peeps trailing Ivanka don’t know where she is, there was a rumor she and Jared were going to Europe and Melania too, but we didn’t get any update from their press secretaries so we assumed it wasn’t happening”
November 23, 2018
President Putin calls a press conference in the Kremlin at 7am local time. Reporters from all the press bureaus get multiple phone calls, both offical and unofficial, telling them to be there.
In the Kremlin, in front of an array of microphones, Putin walks in with that cat got the cream look he has. He speaks in Russian, slowly and waits very deliberately for the interpreter to translate loudly and clearly.
“Russia is always trying to help people. We have suffered tremendously from the greed and deceit of the West, since WW2 when we defeated the Nazi army and got nothing but war in return. Always we have offered the olive branch but been rejected. America has always thought of itself as morally superior. But recent events have shown that America is not that special, the people there are hurting as much as anywhere in the world. America also needs healing and we are ready to help them. That is why we have offered to help one of the great Americans, persecuted in his own country.”
He turned and signaled. A door opened behind him and Donald Trump, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Jared walked out and stood beside and behind him.
Putin and Trump shook hands and Putin gestured to the microphones, partly as an invitation, but partly as an order. Trump shambled forward and grasped the podium with both hands, looking straight ahead and somewhat down.
He waited for the gasps of astonishment and the flurry of flashbulbs to subsidize, then began to speak, first in a lower-than-usual voice but he soon regained his natural
“Good morning everybody, I expect you are surprised to see me and my family here. I too, did not expect to be here but thank you, thank you so much to President Putin. He has been so gracious, so strong and powerful … in his support. I had no choice but to leave corrupt Washington DC where Crooked Hillary and the rotten Democrats are betraying America by filing false charges against me. And also my family. That is the worst, isnt it, going after a mans family. I’ve always fought hard but I never go after the family. But the illegal Mueller Witch Hunt was zeroing in on me and they were going to file false charges against us and really make life difficult for us.
So I’ve accepted President Putin’s invitation to spend some time in Moscow. So gracious, very gracious. His lovely wife has been just incredible. She’s going to show Ivanka all the great things they have here, so much better.
Unfortunately Melania wanted to spend time with her family in Slovenia so she may be joining us later.
No more questions now.”
Reporters shouted questions at him in spite of that — “Mr. President will you return to the US”, “When will you return”, “Who is running the US while you are away” — but one piercing question cut through the air and stood while the rest fell to the floor — “Have you defected to Russia Mr. Trump?” Trump had ignored the other questions without meeting their askers’ gaze but this one he grimaced and the anger of a caged animal shot from his eyes. Putin, standing to the side, smiled.