Four Reasons Trump Will Leave Office
Ignore the fear mongers, democracy is safe.
Every election year, the same nutty paranoia flies around the internet. Conspiracy theorists push the idea that the president of the United States will refuse to leave office, overthrow democracy, and become a dictator. They are wrong for a lot of reasons. Whether in 2021 or 2025, Trump will exit.
For the 2016 election cycle, the theory was mostly pushed by far-right fringe outlets like WorldNetDaily.com, which may have taken notes from the AARP and BSA to just go by its initials, WND. Any time a government agency bought ammunition Infowars would report a secret government plot.
Today, mainstream outlets say the same kinds of things. The possibility has been pushed at The Atlantic, Washington Monthly, the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, and others. The prediction has also been pushed by celebrities like Bill Mahar. Joe Biden himself has jumped on board.
The best voice of reason seems to be Fred Kaplan at Slate. He doesn’t disregard the idea that Trump would try but lays out a detailed and convincing scenario explaining the futility, and why it’s just not something to worry about. In addition to the mechanics, though, what are the structural underpinnings of democracy? What would a president need in place to seize…
