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Can Trump stage a coup and stay in office for a second term?

Can Trump stage a coup and stay in office for a second term?

President Donald Trump refuses to accept Joe Biden's victory, but experts say there is no constitutional way to remain in the White House.

Joe Biden won the presidential election, a fact that Donald Trump and other Republicans refuse to acknowledge.

There are concerns that the president and other Republicans will make every effort to stay in power.

"There will be a transition for a second Trump administration," said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. William Barr, the attorney general, has authorized federal prosecutors to begin investigating election irregularities, a move that prompted the head of the Department of Justice's Electoral Crimes Unit to step down and move to another role. Trump also fired Christopher Krebs, the director of the federal agency who pledged the credibility of the 2020 election.

Yet despite all of Trump's intrigues, it is extremely difficult for him to find a way to stay in power or stage a coup.

Here's an explanation why: Trump refuses to accept that Joe Biden won the presidential election. Is there a constitutional way for him to stage a coup and stay in office for another term?

No, indeed. The Electoral College convenes on December 14 to cast its ballot for president, and almost every state uses popular vote across the country to nominate its constituents. Biden is projected to win far more than the 270 electoral votes he needs to become president. His victory does not depend on one state and he probably has unsurpassed superiority in Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona.

There is a protracted legal theory, thrown by Republicans before the election, that Republican-friendly legislatures in places like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania can ignore the popular vote in their states and nominate their own voters. Federal law allows legislatures to do so if states have "failed to make an election" by the day the electoral college convenes. But there is no evidence of fraud in any state and Biden's commanding borders in these countries make it clear that states have in fact made a choice.

"If the country continues to follow the rule of law, I see no constitutional constitutional way for Trump to remain president and find new evidence of any massive electoral system failure in many states," said a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, Richard Hasen, election specialist.

* Article taken from The Guardian. Translated and adapted for Tiranapost.al.