Time was, a sitting president’s final nine days in office were considered fairly inconsequential. As lame ducks, they‘d probably push through some last-minute policies and issue some pardons, but largely it was a relatively quiet week-and-change spent preparing to move out and welcome the next guy. Then there’s Donald Trump. At present, he’s currently facing the possibility of being forcibly removed from office by either the 25th Amendment or impeachment and the reason is that because he’s a violent demagogue who can‘t be trusted not to incite his mob of extremist followers—even without access to his social media accounts.
On Tuesday, for example, he’ll be visiting the border town of Alamo, Texas, to supposedly highlight his work on the border wall. Except, for one thing, the odds are extremely high that given the opportunity to speak in public, he’ll go off-script and reference his deep and abiding “love” for the people who stormed the Capitol last week, and rile those exact people up by continuing to insist the election was stolen from him, a baseless claim he has refused to drop. For another, it sure sounds like the location was selected to send a not-at-all-subtle message to his supporters. “Trump’s decision to travel to Alamo—named after the San Antonio mission where a small group of Texans fighting for independence against the Mexican government were defeated after a 13-day siege—serve[s] as a symbol of his defiance as he faces the most volatile end of any presidency in modern history,” wrote the Associated Press. On Twitter, retired reporter Michael Dresser was less circumspect about the president’s intentions, writing:
“If anyone doesn’t grasp the violent significance of Trump going to Alamo, Texas, Tuesday, they are not thinking at all. He’s planning Round 2. Why, I’m asked? Good question. The town is named for the San Antonio mission of ‘Remember the Alamo’ fame. It’s a rallying cry. The town is set amid a thick concentration of Border Patrol officers, whom Trump has cultivated as his personal SS since 2015. Not only are these agents fiercely loyal to Trump and his racial doctrines, they fear [that] Biden will seek to overhaul or abolish their agency and hold them accountable for their abuses. They are desperate and Trump will work them into a frenzy…I hope this turns out to be a paranoid fantasy on my part but after Wednesday I’ll take the chance of embarrassment. I hope the forces of constitutional order are anticipating all possibilities.”
Meanwhile the FBI has reportedly sent a memo to law enforcement agencies warning of potential protests at Capitols across the country beginning January 16, as well as a threat from an armed group to travel to Washington, D.C., on the 16th and “stage an uprising if Congress removes…Trump from office,” according to a senior law enforcement official. Per NBC News: