REGRETTABLY, IF HE LEAVES THE COUNTRY, HE'LL COME BACK

I know most of you want Donald Trump brought to justice, but I'd be content if he and his entire family just went away and never came back. I'd be fine if this were his plan for permanent exile:

US President Donald Trump could be planning a trip to Scotland to avoid attending his successor Joe Biden’s inauguration, according to aviation sources.

Prestwick airport has been told to expect the arrival of a US military Boeing 757 aircraft, that is occasionally used by Trump, on January 19 – the day before his Democratic rival takes charge at the White House.

Speculation surrounding Trump’s plans has been fuelled by the activity of US Army aircraft, which were based at Prestwick airport for a week and said to be carrying out 3D reconnaissance of the president’s Turnberry resort.

Sources at Prestwick said two US military surveillance aircraft were circling Turnberry in November, using the Ayrshire aviation hub as a base.

So if this happens, would it be a complete abandonment of the United States? Dare we hope? The writer of this story, Peter Swindon of Scotland's Sunday Post, doesn't think so:

US media has reported that Trump will break with tradition and snub the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20, instead announcing a re-election bid on Air Force One.

That may be conflating two Trump schemes for dealing with the intolerable pain of his election loss. In early December, American news outlets were reporting that Trump was weighing a plan to fly from the White House to Florida on January 20, at which point he'd announce his 2024 candidacy at a MAGA rally. (It's hard to imagine him announcing his candidacy in any way other than before a crowd or in a tweet.)

Shortly before the 2020 election, Jane Mayer reported that Trump planned to head for Scotland after the 2016 voting:

It turns out that, in 2016, Trump in fact made plans to leave the United States right after the vote. Anthony Scaramucci, the former Trump supporter who served briefly as the White House communications director, was with him in the hours before the polls closed. Scaramucci told me that Trump and virtually everyone in his circle had expected Hillary Clinton to win. According to Scaramucci, as he and Trump milled around Trump Tower, Trump asked him, “What are you doing tomorrow?” When Scaramucci said that he had no plans, Trump confided that he had ordered his private plane to be readied for takeoff at John F. Kennedy International Airport, so that the next morning he could fly to Scotland, to play golf at his Turnberry resort. Trump’s posture, Scaramucci told me, was to shrug off the expected defeat. “It was, like, O.K., he did it for the publicity. And it was over. He was fine. It was a waste of time and money, but move on.”

The Mooch may not be a reliable guide to Trump's mindset, however:

Scaramucci said that, if 2016 is any guide, Trump would treat a loss to Biden more matter-of-factly than many people expect: “He’ll go down easier than most people think. Nothing crushes this guy.”

Whoops!

If Trump's plan is to flee the country, snub Biden, and show that he's just taking it easy with a few relaxing rounds of golf, he might find that the weather isn't very cooperative:

I don't think he'll do this, and if he does, he won't play much golf and he'll be back in the U.S. soon.

Which is a shame, because permanent exile could really change America's political narrative for the better:

There is a growing part of me that is of the belief that that might not be a bad outcome. "Big loser ran and hid!" Yeah, I can see that become a generally accepted conclusion to this chapter of American life. Facing his crimes, yes, would be better. But THAT might still be OK.

— Cullen Martin (@CulRMartin) January 4, 2021

Yes, imagine if millions of Americans made a massive emotional investment in the notion that Donald Trump is the greatest president of our lifetime and the most patriotic living American, and that the nation will never be healed until he's restored to the office that has been cruelly and dishonestly taken away from him ... and then he suddenly skips town one day and never thinks again about the presidency or America again. He just plays golf all day, every day, and leaves all the MAGA suckers in the lurch. I'm sorry it won't happen.