Be still, our hearts!
"Maybe I'll have to leave the country. I don't know." -- Trump on what could happen if he loses to Biden pic.twitter.com/NGrXDwjaSd
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 17, 2020
"Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to."*
So, let's speculate!
Why would COVID Donnie feel the need to flee the country if he's booted out of the presidency? Beyond his legal liabilities, some of which can't be pardoned away, his over- leveraged business "empire" with hundreds of millions in loans coming due, and the humiliation of being routed by the voters, that is.
How could he afford to abandon his interests in the U.S.? Beyond the failing, bedbug- ridden golf clubs, hotels, and the rental properties from which tenants are fleeing or having his name taken off the facade, that is.
What would he and his crime family live on? Well, for starters, how about all that unaccounted for campaign money --
Forensic accountants could spend their entire careers trying to figure out how Trump and his campaign spent $1 billion. It's not much of a surprise that so much of the cash disappeared. Trump and his family business are known for both self-enrichment and wasting other people's money. His campaign is incidental to the fundraising.
In addition to vanity ads, it has been widely reported that [former campaign manager Brad] Parscale controls several limited-liability corporations, or LLCs, into which massive amounts of money have been funneled. Given the (bipartisan) nature of how the Federal Election Commission tracks contributions and expenditures, nothing below a prime vendor is publicly reportable. Once it hit Brad's bank account, the money could have gone anywhere and to anyone.
Parscale is under investigation for theft of $40 million of those campaign funds -- perhaps his share of the take, though COVID Donnie reportedly felt "ripped off" by Parscale, maybe because he felt that money should have gone directly into his pocket.
For propaganda value alone, Russian thug and mentor Vladimir Putin would be happy to see a Trump Tower built in Moscow, with a penthouse just for COVID Donnie and dachas for his family in Sochi, while extending the terms on all the loans coming due to Russian interests. Maybe COVID Donnie could be given his own propaganda media (like Putin's RT), to continue stirring up divisions here.
So, was COVID Donnie foreshadowing going into exile to avoid prosecution and maintain the fiction of great wealth following a landslide defeat? It is irresponsible not to speculate!
_________________
* Sot Peggy Noonan, WSJ, April 2000, irresponsibly speculating about all things Clinton.
