He is terrifying in theory, and he knows politics, but I don’t think he’s crazy- or too crazy to overstep accepted rules. How it plays out depends on the election. If Democrats can retake Congress, I don’t think Pence would be able to do much, and depending on how much damage he would probably be too ineffective. That is probably the best possible outcome. A bigger worry is all the rabid members of the Trump cult that would be taking it to the streets, turning fair politics into a war.
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History suggests otherwise.
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If funny how time just flies by when you are having fun, isn’t it.
What, are you saying that them Infowar muppets are actually on to something?! 
Fingers cross for a big turn out for the mid-terms and a failure of Republican gerrymandering.
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These people are what they are all day, and still manage to sleep at nights. I don’t know if this will be a problem to them at all. I think they all have some “I have survived and got away with it, therefore I must be the fittest of the species” world view. I don’t think they have the concept that they can be ‘bad’ if they get power and money.
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It just makes me think of those guys the Nazi-hunters searched for for decades. They seemed perfectly okay with having got away with utterly repellent acts and seemed able to sleep at nights. In their minds, they were right and it was the people who sought to bring them to book who were wrong. People, eh? Sometimes they beggar belief.
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Those pardons were at the end of the George H. W. Bush’s presidency. I imagine if he had won re-election he probably wouldn’t have pardoned them until the end of his second term if at all.
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Honestly, he probably won’t. Speaking in very broad strokes, you can put narcissists onto a continuum between “aggressive type” and “avoidant type”, which more or less defines how they respond to emotional overload.
Trump falls more into the avoidant type, only fighting battles he thinks he can win “aggressively”, but immediately turning tail and running away from losing ones, trying desperately to change the subject and move onto something he can “win”.
He’ll bluster and sort of try to feel people out to see if he can get them to fight the scary stuff for him, but nobody’s gonna back him on martial law, and he’ll retreat when he’s rebuffed. Sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise that he’s such a dickless coward.
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Why would the military carry out that order?
@skr1: I feel like we’ve collectively forgotten why Pence was put on the ticket for VP. He was deeply unpopular in Indiana, and wasn’t going to get reelected as governor.
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Yeah, previous administrations would do it on the way out, as they were concerned with electoral backlash.
Trump does not have that concern. He knows he’s never going to face a fairly conducted election.
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I was referring to his affiliation with Putin, a man known for having ‘potential liabilities’ killed off.
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I haven’t seen any evidence of that.
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Trump’s thing seems more to claim victory in conflicts that never happened. Manufacture battles he can claim victory in regardless of out come. Instigate genuine problems where his bluster can be impressive, even if there is no actual resolution.
That’d still be avoidant. Because its still about avoiding real conflict and risk. But its more pathological liary.
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Oh yes. I hadn’t read it that way, but you totally did. I don’t know why Putin would want to bump any of them off, though. No-one would believe them, and they seem to be doing a fine job on each other anyway.
Oh, the two are completely intertwined. You pretty much never see pathological lying outside of the Cluster B (Narcissism, borderline, antisocial, histrionic) personality disorder set.
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I was being facetious. Mostly.
As @some_guy pointed out, the Axis of Stupid (Drudge-Hannity-Carlson-Jones) used to get all het up over the prospect of martial law in the waning days of Obama’s presidency. I’d like to think I haven’t reached that level of paranoia yet.
On balance, I think @NovaeDeArx is right. Trump is willing to fight for stuff when he’s sure he’s going to win, but more often he simply declares victory and walks away. He probably won’t do anything as drastic as declaring martial rule, but if he did, who in the government would demur? Not the GOP, he’s broken the spirit of anyone who isn’t giving full throat to the Trump agenda. The Democrats aren’t positioned to do much until (please gods) November. And he’s the Commander in Chief of the military; I don’t think they can ignore his orders even if they want to.
Oh, yes they can. You’re supposed to ignore illegal orders (and you can be tried for following illegal ones, so you can’t try that ‘just following orders’ shit as defense), and “Overthrow the government for me, pretty PLZ?” is pretty much the ultimate illegal order.
Besides, it’s well-known that the military leaders really, really dislike Trump. They’re not gonna give him the benefit of the doubt.
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The generals despise Trump. The soldiers love him. It will be interesting to see what happens, if it comes to that. I’m betting on the generals.
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Point taken.
The president’s ability to impose martial rule is ill defined - I think Posse Comitatus touches on it, as does the War Powers Act. The most direct discussion is in the Insurrection Act, which reads in part:
ß 332. Use of militia and armed forces to enforce Federal authority
Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State or Territory by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.ß 333. Interference with State and Federal law
The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy…
Those are broad powers and I’m not sure that a desperate president, backed up by a spineless majority, wouldn’t abuse them to issue entirely lawful orders to the military. Then again, I’m not particularly knowledgeable in this area at all, so I may be imagining things.
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