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DW \u2014 The current US president has yet to concede his election defeat, but that doesn’t mean he can stay in the White House forever. From legal battles to television aspirations, DW looks at his post-presidency prospects.<\/p>\nDW \u2014 The current US president has yet to concede his election defeat, but that doesn’t mean he can stay in the White House forever. From legal battles to television aspirations, DW looks at his post-presidency prospects.<\/p>\n
It’s been one week since Americans went to the polls and elected Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n With more than two months until his planned inauguration, Biden is already falling into the role, meeting this week with experts to discuss a coronavirus action plan<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, many are wondering what will become of a sitting president who has thus far declined to publicly accept<\/a> his electoral defeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n Barring a big twist \u2014 and with this leader you never know \u2014 current US President Donald Trump will be out one way or another on January 20, 2021. Here’s what he might have in store, or what might be in store for him, once he leaves the White House:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A US Department of Justice\u00a0policy\u00a0\u2014 established in 1973 during the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon \u2014\u00a0prevents courts from indicting a sitting president. Leaving the White House will strip Trump of that presidential immunity, exposing him to an avalanche of lawsuits that have piled up over the four years he’s been in office.<\/p>\n In the state of New York, both criminal and civil investigations into Trump’s business practices are currently ongoing. The president also faces lawsuits from women who have accused him of sexual misconduct. Trump could also find himself implicated in a hush money payment scandal that sent his former lawyer Michael Cohen to prison in 2019. Cohen was found guilty of violating US campaign law by paying two women to stay silent about extramarital affairs they had with Trump, at the time a Republican presidential candidate. Cohen said Trump ordered him<\/a> to make the payments.\u00a0<\/p>\n It’s possible that Trump might try to use his constitutional power to issue criminal pardons to clear himself before he leaves office. But no president has ever tried to pardon himself and it’s unclear whether the move would hold up legally.\u00a0<\/p>\n Biden, as president, could also choose to pardon Trump,\u00a0as President Gerald Ford did to Nixon following his resignation in 1974.<\/p>\n Either way, the president of the United States only has the authority to pardon federal crimes, meaning Trump will be vulnerable to prosecution on a state level once he’s out of office. Only time will tell what that means concretely.\u00a0<\/p>\n “He’s been a legal Houdini his whole life,” Trump biographer and journalist Michael D\u2019Antonio told DW. “He\u2019s been able to wiggle out of lawsuits and pay as little as possible to settle when the government has caught him.”<\/p>\n Some have speculated that the intensity of Trump’s second-term presidential bid \u2014\u00a0marked by attempts to discourage voter turnout and vote counting \u2014\u00a0was motivated by a need to retain the legal and financial protections of his post.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the o\ufb03ce of the presidency that\u2019s keeping him from prison and the poorhouse,”\u00a0Yale history professor Timothy Snyder told magazine The New Yorker<\/em> in the days leading up to the election.\u00a0<\/p>\n In September, an investigation into Trump’s taxes by The New York Times<\/em><\/a> revealed that the president owes over $400 million (\u20ac340 million), much of it to German lender Deutsche Bank, with the loans falling due within the next four years.<\/p>\n Days before the election, Deutsche Bank senior executives told news agency Reuters that a Trump loss would make it less awkward for the lender to demand repayment of the loans, which Trump has personally guaranteed, or to foreclose on his assets. Under increasing public scrutiny<\/a> for questionable banking practices, the officials at Trump’s long-term lender said a defeat would present an opportunity to settle Trump’s accounts and end a relationship that had\u00a0brought the institute continued bad press and unwanted attention from lawmakers. Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the nature of\u00a0its relationship with Trump now that Biden is president-elect.<\/p>\n Trump also faces the prospect of having to pay back a $72 million tax refund he claimed in 2010, as an ongoing audit looks into Trump’s claim of $1.4 billion in losses in 2008 and 2009. <\/p>\n The president still owns over 500 businesses, including hotels, resorts and golf clubs, a fact he has brought up regularly during his presidency. While Trump’s adult sons took over the day-to-day management of The Trump Organization once he took office, the president has retained access to his business assets. Democrats have called this a conflict of interest, accusing Trump of allowing potential\u00a0business deals to guide foreign policy and of using the office of the presidency for personal financial gain.\u00a0<\/p>\nA wave of lawsuits<\/h2>\n
A mountain of debt<\/h2>\n
The family business<\/h2>\n