President Trump will not resign. He also will not hand over power to Vice President Pence and ask for forgiveness, according to top White House advisers who spoke to the most senior members of the Trump Cabinet, including Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Pence and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
The president continues to ask key advisers about his ability to forgive himself before leaving office. It is a power that has not been tested and in no way established. A 1976 memo from the Justice Department’s Legal Advisory Office says the president cannot forgive himself, so it would be a gamble. The president is concerned about his legal exposure after the presidency, but not necessarily related to the attack on the Capitol.
Republican Party sources close to the White House and Congressional leaders say the threat of a second impeachment is real and could find some support among House Republicans, who face pressure from lobbying companies and corporations that help finance their campaigns. They made it clear that they will cut ties with Republicans who support Trump in any impeachment vote.
But on the other side is the Trump-inspired Republican base, which threatens to launch primary challenges against House Republicans who vote for impeachment.
Republicans want House Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to push the issue, but she, by protecting the institution of Congress and maximizing political advantage, will force Republicans to choose. In particular, the main Republican sources admit that if the crowd that attacked the Capitol had been instigated by a Democratic president, a president of the Republican Party would have done the same thing.
Mr. Trump continues to believe that any impeachment speech is strictly partisan; the main external consultants continue to tell him that he is not partisan, but institutional. Congress was under attack this week, and some Republicans feel it is necessary to step back with the impeachment vote – for now and for history.
The idea of invoking the 25th Amendment remains remote and its main objective is to keep the president in line for the remaining days of his presidency. But senior cabinet officials still in office, mainly Mnuchin and Pompeo, have not refuted the suggestion internally or externally to send a signal to Trump that it is an action they would be willing to take if he could not control himself.
Leading White House advisers now know that Trump was generally and initially satisfied with the Capitol protest, seeing it as a reflection of his supporters’ love for him, and not as an attack on legislative power and the bases of a Democratic Republic . This misunderstanding fueled resignations and denunciations by the cabinet and the White House.
There is probably not enough time to impeach and remove Trump from office. Bringing the Senate back would require unanimous consent from all senators, since it is in recess until January 19, based on another unanimous consent agreement.
However, the feeling from many Republican Party sources is that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell would be mistaken about how he would approach an impeachment article – for the sole purpose of warning Mr. Trump that the power to dismiss him from office is no longer in control of the president.
On Friday, it became clear to President Trump and those within the Trump Organization – Donald Trump Jr. and Eric and Ivanka Trump – thatsubstantial damage to reputation had been made for the Trump brand. This week, the online store platform Shopify removed all products from President Trump’s campaign from its platform, saying these pages violated the Canadian company’s policy against sellers promoting violence.
The closure by some Trump-branded online store companies forced a quick search for other online locations and brought awareness that Trump’s post-presidency could be hampered by this week’s events.
Trump family members actively sought another safe haven online. The feeling among those close to the Trump family was that the president had begun to realize that, in a post-White House world, the viability of the Trump brand was now vulnerable. Those close to the family and still somewhat sympathetic to the president see brand protection as possibly the best pressure point available to ensure that Trump leaves the White House and the government comparatively quietly and allows for a peaceful transition – if not personally endorsed – , put on.