Deluded to Bitter end
Shamed Trump in vow: We’ll be back.. Pelosi: He could be accessory to murder
NEW DAWN Trump leaves DC
REJECTED by America, Donald Trump’s enforced abdication as the world’s most powerful man was too much for his ego to take.
With his pride bruised, Nancy Pelosi claiming he could be an “accessory to murder” and aides and supporters deserting him in their droves, he was desperate to find the adoration he once commanded.
His post-presidential options will be defined by the fallout over his incendiary US Capitol speech on January 6 that spurred his supporters to riot, killing five and led to his historic second impeachment.
On the eve of the inauguration, House of Congress speaker Pelosi took aim at Trump. She said: “[The] President’s words are important, they weigh a ton. And if you’re Donald Trump talking to these people, they believe it and they used his words...
“This president is an accessory to that crime because he instigated that insurrection that caused those deaths.”
Still Trump bid farewell to his chaotic four years in the Oval Office with a speech in front of a couple of hundred loyalists as if he was still speaking to the masses.
The one-term President delivered a self-congratulatory address boasting of his achievements and touted his return.
His departure included a 21-gun salute, red carpet and the playing of Hail to the Chief.
With the Stars and Stripes blowing in the wind as his backdrop, Trump praised his administration’s efforts while blaming America’s pandemic deaths on “the China virus”.
“This has been an incredible four years,” he said as his sons Donald Jr and Eric looked on with sisters Ivanka and Tiffany, and Ivanka in tears. He went on: “I just want to say goodbye, but hopefully it’s not a long-term goodbye. We’ll see each other again.
“I want to thank all the great people of Washington DC, all of the people that we worked with to put this miracle together. So, have a good life. We will see you soon. Thank you.”
No longer welcome in his native New York, Trump flew to his Florida Mar-a-lago retreat where today he will wake up in silk sheets surrounded by his gaudy gold-adorned bedroom.
Gone will be the White House Rose Garden from his window, in its place his €13,500-a-year private members club’s croquet lawn. He has returned to his Versailles, a 118-room paradise where his ego will be served as the private staff on the 18-acre estate refer to him simply as “King”.
Despite defiantly bragging of running for office again, if convicted at the upcoming Senate trial, the 74-year-old will certainly be barred.
His woes do not end there as he also faces legal cases over his company’s tax affairs, business dealings and from women who have accused him of sexual assault, which he denies.
And whereas he once was courted by TV bosses and book publishers, he is now a pariah among some of America’s biggest businesses. He has been barred from social media and cut him off from financial services.
The toxic effect on his real estate, hotel and golf resort empire could be devastating. His brands are haemorrhaging money as he himself has guaranteed some €250million in loans – money his company currently does
I want to thank all the great people who put this miracle together
DONALD TRUMP IN HIS FINAL ADDRESS AS US PRESIDENT
not have. Before skulking away from DC, Trump issued 73 pardons and 70 commutations that included his one-time political strategist and two rappers, but not himself or his family.
The list showed a President keen on granting pardons to his allies, an unusual number of whom have been swept up in corruption charges.
The most controversial to be given a pardon was for his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty to charges he defrauded donors in a “We Build the Wall” online fundraising campaign.
Now ensconced in his new Florida home, while stripped of his social media bullhorn, Trump will today begin plotting a return to power.
Most ex-leaders spend their time making well-paid speeches, writing even more lucrative memoirs, playing golf, getting their Presidential libraries in order and staying silent about what their successor is doing. But apart from playing golf, the future for Trump will be unlike any other President before him.
Away from his many lawsuits and hopes of returning to the White House in 2024, Trump has hinted he may launch his own TV network and possibly even a social media site after the digital behemoths of Silicon Valley silenced him.
A source told the Mirror: “In the final days of his leadership, the things that preoccupied Trump were not the things that preoccupied other Americans.
“He was not concerned about the deadly riot he had encouraged or his second impeachment. Nor was he concerned with the pandemic that killed 400,000 Americans, left millions out of work, shattered the economy and is still running rampant.
“No, the last days of his presidency he was consumed by who he felt he’d been wronged by and just exactly how he can exact revenge.”