No politics inteded: Why isn't Trump after leaving office in any way or shape involved in politics say as member of congress or senate?
I know that after you leave office as POTUS it is some sort of unwritten rule that you withdraw from politics.
Why did Trump not withdraw?
Also why isn't he a senator or congressman during Biden's term?
Unfortunately political systems are often held together with “tradition” and “gentleman’s agreements”, where conventions dictate how people should behave. Politicians typically followed them because it is seen as the honourable and right thing to do.
However, it seems to be a recent trend among the hard right that politicians just ignore those conventions because:
a) those conventions are inconvenient b) honour means nothing to them, and c) nothing actually enforces those unwritten rules - so there are no consequences for ignoring them
Similar things have happened here in the UK as well. I guess our political systems both assume some degree of good will & trust in its representatives, and it generally turns out that trust is misplaced.
You make a great case for getting rid of implicit rules and making them explicit at least within the current political environment (I mean the resurgence of fascism and other inhuman currents)
It's not typical just for the right around here, the left does it as well. Who does it more... I would speculate they both do equally.
Can you give an example? All the ones I've seen are either from the (far) right, or a direct reaction to the (far) right bucking traditional rules.
No, they cannot.
I didn't really expect them to answer. 90% of the time you just get to watch them scuttle off to hide, like cockroaches from the light. 9% of the time you get soundbite diarrhea, which is easy to debunk.
The last 1% can be interesting however. A well thought out counter argument to something I believe. It is a good check, to make sure I'm not the one in the bubble. It also lets me understand those on the other side of a debate. It's reached the point where 1% is being generous, however.
I heard they found illegally downloaded Metallica songs on Hunter's laptop!!! Checkmate, libtards!
And here we run into Poe's law ☹️. I'm hoping you dropped this --> /s
It's really hard to tell sometimes, isn't it? 😂
Yes I can. One of the prime ministers we had was convicted but abolished by the president. He was in a left oriented party, the president was in the same one. He didn't retire from politics, he went on to become our prime minister.
Unfortunately, that is so stripped down that it's impossible to analyse it in any reasonable way. It sounds like more run-of-the-mill corruption rather than bucking tradition though. Corruption is a problem of humanity, rather than just one side. Though even that seems a lot more prevalent and egregious in the right, right now.
If you want the full story or details, PM me, I'll disclose the names of the people and thus, the country I live in (which is what I'm trying to hide in this case).
I think it says a lot that your only example is either from a country so small that it would help dox you, or with other issues that would overshadow it.
I could, fairly trivially, locate multiple examples of right wing politicians abusing the traditions that support the country's government. While my own has its issues, I'm not limited to it.
Considering the original post was focused on the US and their current problems, your original comment implied that it applied there. The fact you haven't offered a single US based example is extremely telling.
Btw, Feel free to PM me the details, if you like.
Yes, I live in a small country. No, the examples are not from the US.
PM sent 👍.
The example was of the sort of corruption that affects politics everywhere, from a small country, not known for a lack of corruption. The example was also quite old. Predating trumps run at president.
Regardless, it was an example of left winged polititians doing exactly what left winged polititians are not supposed to do.
Doesn't matter of you're left or right winged around here, they're all the same, greedy and have no shame for what they did.
No-one ever said that left wing politicians are perfect. They are far from it.
The issue is 2-fold. You've not shown an example of what was originally discussed (blatant breaking of tradition , with no justification other than "because we can"). It is more normal corruption that creeps into all political systems.
The second is the scale. It's akin to comparing a school shooting, with dozens of fatalities, to a playground fistfight. Both are bad, but the scale is vastly different. Saying they should both be punished equally would be blatantly absurd.
That's exactly what I've shown. He went on to be a prime minister after being convicted and then abolished by the president, because... well, he can.
Regarding the last paragraph, there are other examples regarding the same polititian (cover ups of a few unexplained murders while he was in office) which is the smoking gun you're looking for. In the left's defence, the right did things like this as well.
My standpoint is both sides are, excuse my French, dogshit. Everyone is looking in their best selfinterest, nothing more.
deleted by creator
Still waiting on those examples... 🙄
I'd have to disclose the country I live in for the examples.
It’s okay, you can just admit you’re full of shit.
It’s the internet, no one really cares.
Write me a pm if you want specific examples.
Why would I PM with you?
I’m interacting with you on a public forum and if you don’t like to do that maybe Lemmy isn’t the right choice of social media for you.
Because I already said I don't want to disclose publicly where I live 😒 🤦.
Your instance and my instance admins can read PMs.
I can publicly post those pictures of our conversations.
Nauru is the smallest country by population and has 12 688 people so you still wouldn’t be doxxed.
🤦
Told you. You want examples? PM me.
I’m not the one asking for examples, I’m the one telling you that you’re full of shit.
🤷
I don’t seem to have the ability to PM people on my app but if you could PM me with those examples, I’d be very appreciative.
❤️
PM sent 👍.
Just to be clear, your statement is disingenuous at best. You didn't even provide a single example of evidence or fact to back up your claim, but used your own "speculation" as an ultimate authority. You really just sound like someone severely ill informed.
Scroll down the comments, I did provide an example. If you want more details, PM me, we can discuss in private. I don't want to disclose publically the country I live in.
Well give us a hint… does your country have regular mass shootings and do nothing about it?
No, nothing like that.
But we do have a flawed democracy implementation and greedy corrupted polititians.
You can't say "no politics intended" and then directly discuss politics. The answer will invariably include politics.
Trump didn't want to be a politician. He wanted to be president. Being a senator or congressman is a job, but being president is a mark of prestige. If he can become president again, he will, because it makes him look good. There's no point for him in taking a lower position with less power.
Are you looking at this picture, reading this post and then attempting to seriously debate the author on the merits of their argument of no-politics "inteded"?
When people say "no pun intended," it is always right after they've made a completely intentional pun.
When a person says "no offense [intended], but," it is always right before they say something intentionally offensive.
What I'm saying is that maybe this grammar "no X intended" doesn't actually mean that literally they don't intend X, but instead that they want to lessen their culpability for exactly intending X.
When people say "no pun intended", I like to say "none taken".
No comment intended, but… oh, well. Too late now.
All excellent points except he has a real dire agenda if he is president again and it’s not just to make him look good.
You are right, but what I meant was, that I didn't ask from a political point of view, just wanted to understand from a technical point of view. Like I understand that once you have been president you retire. But trump didnt retire. So since he is continuing on, why in the meantime isn't he in congress or senate?
I thought obama, bush, clinton are just not in senate or congress because they were president, following the unwritten rule.
So since trump didnt retire why isnt he in congress or the senate. I think he would have gotten a vote in florida or other such states.
yeah but what you say makes sense, so it is just to do with trumps personality profile...
Trump actually promised to leave us alone if he lost. He also suggested that he'd move to a foreign country.
If you never admit you lost, did you really? (Yes)
Yeah, That was common passive-aggressive bullshit, e.g. If I don't win I'll take my ball and go home.
He probably forgot he said that like 2 minutes later
Here's an article to give you a little more context historically :
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/16/few-former-presidents-have-run-for-their-old-jobs-or-anything-else-after-leaving-office/
But the answer to your question is probably found in the fact that Trump never ran for any other office, much less served. (I could argue he never served as president either, he only took and had others serve him, but that would be bringing "politics" into it.) He ran as an "Outsider," who was unstained by the inevitable compromises of working with others, who was going to run the country like a business. He did. If you look at how he ran his business affairs, it's pretty consistent with his presidency.
He's got a lot of power still in the Republican Party, without having to spend any time working on legislation or living in DC.
He doesn’t want that. He wants to be the guy who was “wronged” in the last election.
I mean, he’s making bank off of donations just from beating that dead horse. Why work when you can just scream and cry and have people throw money at you?
Also, considering the size of his ego, he probably doesn’t want anything less than being the top guy. That’s all that matters to him.
Another poster said something about a “gentlemen’s agreement”, which isn’t wrong. The US has (generally) tried to maintain the peaceful transfer of power. They didn’t plan on a scumbag throwing a bitch fit to keep that from happening.
I suspected being a senator or congressman would be actually quiet difficult and Trump may not be cut out for it. thanks for your insight shrewbacca
No problem, fam. It’s an honest question, so I don’t blame you for asking.
He's trying not to go to prison.
In fairness to Trump, he's been pretty busy defending himself from a record number of indictments. Gets in the way of political participation.
If only!
Remember when Obama had a different color suit and they all collectively flipped their shit
*the media tried to convince anyone to give a shit.
FTFY
Ah yeah the "Barack Obama tan suit controversy" of 2014
Presidents don’t generally take a demotion. Why isn’t Obama in Congress?
Especially in Trump’s case, he’s still very much involved in politics, trying to run for another term in 2024. That’s the most impactful move he can make now, and any other long-term commitments would interfere with his campaigning (and all the legal battles he’s part of).
I don't think Trump is the first to run for president after being voted out.
Not running for a lesser office is way more the "unwritten rule".
thanks I didn't know this
Grover Cleveland did just that, he's the only US President to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland
The ideal president in American culture does what George Washington did, serve two terms then retire. Being a one term president is seen as a failure and a rejection of their policies, so relection is unlikely
Lack of competence, decency, and love for his country?
I don't give af if my president has horrible hair or a terrible fake tan, as long as they have good policies. There's a million bad things to say about Trump but picking on his looks just serves to divide us instead of focusing on real issues. Hell my senator looks like Lurch and wears basketball shorts instead of suits but he's doing great things, so I support him.
Lowest common denominator. Easy content that's bound to get clicks. When this happens, in my mind it begins to cast doubt on criticisms. It literally just becomes the orange man bad memes. Sometimes I feel like pointless division is the point. Quarrelling among ourselves while they sit in their hypocritical ivory towers.
while, not whole
John Quincy Adams went on to become a Representative for MA in the House and I'd argue was the only real demotion post-presidency.
William Taft went to the Supreme Court after his Presidency (not exactly a lateral move in and of itself) but was the Chief Justice so it's probably close. Then again institutions powers wax and wane over time, so it could be argued that it was a demotion.
Lastly, kind of a bonus factoid of post-presidency activity -- Teddy Roosevelt, after serving a term plus some (edit: he took over the presidency as the VP after McKinley's assassination) and was a Republican. He later ran in 1912 as a candidate for the Bull-Moose Party after a rift in the Republican party when they nominated the above W. Taft instead of himself or another more Progressive Republican.
How is SC seat a demotion? The only real power the president has is wartime, and Americans aren't fond of war especially if it has a chance to end up at their borders.
Aren't fond to war? Wtf am I reading??
You think the veto power is not a real power?
In addition to the veto power mentioned above, there's also the power to issue executive orders and to nominate judges, including supreme justices. Those are fairly significant. There's also the influence they have over foreign policy.
Teddy Roosevelt gets all the glory for his "a man, a plan, a canal: panama" palindrome, but everybody forgets "Taft: fat".
Troll. No politics intended 🤣🤣🤣👌👍
😭 😭 😭 I really didn't though
Yet... You attached a Facebook political meme...
Nothing political about saying trump looks like an absolute fool. His spray tan is gross and his hair looks dead
"imagine how Republicans would act..."
Yeah you're right that picture definitely isn't political lol
I'm sure we both agree with the message but...pretending it's not political is foolish
Trump isn't even a politician.
👌🤣
He already sat in the highest seat. He'd never lower himself to anything below that. To my knowledge, no former-president has ever taken a lower seat in government. Many still find seats of power, but outside the government, I think.
John Quincy Adams, but he was a bit of a special case in all respects.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Quincy_Adams
I thought of the limited series with Paul Giamatti on HBO when I hesitated on whether anyone had taken a lower office after being the pres. Not knowledgeable enough to say for sure when I posted. Insomnia now, so I'll keep this in mind for when I'm learning more. Thanks!
Taft went to the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court isn't exactly a lower seat.
TIL
That's after you serve your two terms and essentially retire from politics that you don't get involved. Trump very much wants to return, so he's involved.
but he isnt involved in the way presidential candidates are usually involved in congress or senate.
He's very much the presumptive nominee. You don't need to be a house rep or senator to be the nominee.
Why would he want to? Trump only cares about Trump.
He doesn't need money and has always planned on running for POTUS again. Any other political position would look like a big loss to him.
Can you imagine if a Biden fanboy made a post about how manly and beach ready he is? No, because only a deranged person would say that about any 70+ yo politician.
Trump cultists were literally expending every braincell on fantasy fueled denial.
Because no one with any decency or wisdom wants or trusts him.
Putin needs Trump. Trump needs Putin.
Did you hear
SimonPutin say stop? Nyet. No. You did not.Dumbfuckistan!
I guess he hadn't taken enough advantages on the side yet, so he decided to try it all again.
Imagine conservatives don’t have to get pissy about stuff they made up themselves. After decades of imaginary things, fabricated in their own minds, it’s easy to not take a single thing serious that comes out of their mouths.
One day it will be something real, something serious and dangerous for us all. And nobody will listen to them.
Yeah there is a lot that is going wrong there! especially there used to be at least in the USA the mantra of "I didn't vote for the guy but he is our president and as such I stand behind him in support" that is completely gone it seems. I know republicans in the past who said things like that to me.
I’d like to hear what that man has to say!
😂
I'd be amazed if he could actually do it without Jill's help
Imagine how Democrats would feel if Trump did this every day