Yahoo News Pete Buttigieg: If Donald Trump Won't Leave White House, He Can 'Do Chores'
In part due to President Donald Trump’s own handling of the subject, many Americans have expressed fears that if he soundly loses the 2020 election, he won’t leave the office willingly.
If that happens, Pete Buttigieg has a plan: He’ll put Trump to work ― doing chores around the White House.
During a town hall in Reno, Nevada, in advance of the state’s Saturday caucuses, the Democratic presidential candidate was asked what he would do if he beat Trump in November and the president insisted the results were a hoax and he refused to step down.
Buttigieg’s initial response: “I guess if he’s willing to do chores, I guess we could work something out.”
He then explained that Americans who didn’t want Trump to have a second term had a duty to vote in November.
“I think we want to set a goal of winning big enough that this election is way beyond cheating distance, and that Trumpism goes into the history books too,” he said. “It’s got to be a win so big that Senate Republicans are reunited with their consciences, and only a political shockwave can do that.”
You can see the exchange here:
Trump, seemingly in jest, has more than once broached the prospect of blowing off the two-term limit for presidents that was officially added to the Constitution through the 22nd amendment in 1951. In a Twitter post last June, he rhetorically wondered whether “the people would demand that I stay longer?”
.....news is that at the end of 6 years, after America has been made GREAT again and I leave the beautiful White House (do you think the people would demand that I stay longer? KEEP AMERICA GREAT), both of these horrible papers will quickly go out of business & be forever gone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 16, 2019
In the wake of China’s Xi Jinping having been given the opportunity to serve as “president for life,” Trump’s suggested that such a move isn’t a bad idea, according to The Week.
The president’s banter on the issue has become no joking matter for other politicians.
Last May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) admitted she worried that Trump would not leave the White House willingly in 2020, regardless of the election’s results.
In June, Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld told HBO talk show host Bill Maher he doubted Trump would willingly cede the Oval Office if he loses in November.
“He’ll have a run at saying, ‘It was a rigged game so I’m not leaving,’” Weld said. He added that didn’t think “the military and indeed even the Justice Department — the rank-and-file, the investigative agencies — would stand for that in this country.”
Maher himself held forth on the concern late last month. “So my question to all Democratic candidates is, what’s the plan?” he said. “If you win and the next day he claims he’s voiding the election because of irregularities he’s hearing about, what do you do?”
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He Has 9 Billion Dollars
In a tasteless boast, Trump went on to reveal he refused a bank's loan of $4bn. He said: “I don’t need it. I don’t want it. And I’ve been there.”
While millions of Americans continue to suffer the effects of sluggish economic growth, Trump is blissfully unaffected. Well, that's how he makes it sound.
But He's Never Used A Cash Machine
During an appearance on 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien', Trump said that he'd never seen the need to use ATMs, all the while hinting at his extraordinary wealth.
He Gets Super Defensive About Money
But unlike those struggling to make ends meet, Trump is more concerned with the perception of his wealth, which he says is "more than $9 bn".
When an author suggested Trump had a net worth of less than $300m, the property tycoon sued him for libel.
Yet during testimony, Trump admitted his own estimations depend on his "feelings".
It was reported Trump said: "Yes, even my own feelings (guide estimates of my wealth), as to where the world is, where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day."
Trump lost the libel case.
He's Leading A Fact-Free Campaign
In a remarkable exchange with FOX News host Bill O'Reilly, the famously impertinent presenter took exception to flawed statistics banded about by Trump.
O’Reilly: This bothered me, I gotta tell ya. You tweeted out that whites killed by blacks — these are statistics you picked out from somewhere — at a rate of 81 percent. And that’s totally wrong. Whites killed by blacks is 15 percent, yet you tweeted it was 81 percent. Now …
Trump: Bill, I didn’t tweet, I retweeted somebody that was supposedly an expert, and it was also a radio show.
O’Reilly: Yeah, but you don’t wanna be. … Why do you want to be in that zone?
Trump: Hey, Bill, Bill, am I gonna check every statistic? I get millions and millions of people, @RealDonaldTrump, by the way.
O’Reilly: You gotta, you’re a presidential contender, you gotta check ’em.
He Takes His Name Way Too Seriously
J. Taikwok Yung, a self-described "domainer" from Brooklyn, NY, was hauled before judges after Trump noticed he'd bought up a huge amount of his brand online.
Trump sought the maximum damages allowed - $100,000 for each of the four Trump-related domain names bought by Yung.
And he had legal grounds: Trump is a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Organisation and is adorned on many a high-stakes casino, and several hotels.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
