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?

  • WhaleScenery@lemmy.world
    901·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • BigBlackCockroach@lemmy.worldOP
      22·
      1 year ago

      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)

    • 0x4E4F@infosec.pubEnglish
      471·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • cynar@lemmy.worldEnglish
        45·
        1 year ago

        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.

          • cynar@lemmy.worldEnglish
            322·
            1 year ago

            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.

        • 0x4E4F@infosec.pubEnglish
          312·
          1 year ago

          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.

          • cynar@lemmy.worldEnglish
            12·
            1 year ago

            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.

            • 0x4E4F@infosec.pubEnglish
              19·
              1 year ago

              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).

              • cynar@lemmy.worldEnglish
                9·
                1 year ago

                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.

                • 0x4E4F@infosec.pubEnglish
                  18·
                  1 year ago

                  Yes, I live in a small country. No, the examples are not from the US.

                  PM sent 👍.

              • SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world
                151·
                1 year ago

                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.

                • 0x4E4F@infosec.pubEnglish
                  111·
                  1 year ago

                  Because I already said I don’t want to disclose publicly where I live 😒 🤦.

      • Scotty_Trees@lemmy.world
        15·
        1 year ago

        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.

        • 0x4E4F@infosec.pubEnglish
          19·
          1 year ago

          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.

  • Susaga@ttrpg.networkEnglish
    691·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • Hegar@kbin.social
      82·
      1 year ago

      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”?

    • Lemmylaugh@lemmy.ml
      61·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • logicbomb@lemmy.world
      5·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • BigBlackCockroach@lemmy.worldOP
      34·
      1 year ago

      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…

  • logicbomb@lemmy.world
    662·
    1 year ago

    Trump actually promised to leave us alone if he lost. He also suggested that he’d move to a foreign country.

    “If I lose to [Biden], I don’t know what I’m going to do. I will never speak to you again,” Trump told supporters at a rally in North Carolina.

    Trump made similar remarks in 2016 when he rivaled Hillary Clinton for the presidency: “I don’t think I’m going to lose, but if I do, I don’t think you’re ever going to see me again, folks,” Trump said. “I think I’ll go to Turnberry and play golf or something.”

  • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
    32·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • shrewbacca@lemmy.one
    31·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • BigBlackCockroach@lemmy.worldOP
      9·
      1 year ago

      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

  • xantoxis@lemmy.world
    232·
    1 year ago

    In fairness to Trump, he’s been pretty busy defending himself from a record number of indictments. Gets in the way of political participation.

  • serial_crusher@lemmy.basedcount.com
    16·
    1 year ago

    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).

  • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
    15·
    1 year ago

    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”.

  • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    174·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • HMN@discuss.tchncs.de
      42·
      1 year ago

      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

  • gutternonsense@lemmy.world
    141·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
      31·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • Twista713@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        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.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    132·
    1 year ago

    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.