Rumors of War
What a Defeated Trump Could Still Try to Do Before Leaving the White House
A lot can go haywire in the months before a new Congress and president are sworn in
In most countries, power changes instantly after an election. The winners take it, and the losers cede it. That’s not the case in the United States. Instead, because we have a presidential system where executive officials hold discrete terms and the legislative branch is never dissolved — as it is in most parliamentary systems — there is a lengthy period after a federal election occurs before the winners are seated.
In fact, in the United States, a new Congress isn’t seated until two months after Election Day, and the president remains in office for 10 long weeks. This means bills can still be passed, judges can still be confirmed, and executive actions can still be undertaken by politicians who have been rejected by the voters at the polls. If Joe Biden wins in November and Democrats retake the Senate, Mitch McConnell will still be calling the shots on Capitol Hill for two more months and Trump will remain president, in charge of the same apparatus of state he’s repeatedly turned toward his own self-interested ends. Here’s how that could go haywire.
