Donald Trump is a man without a country

It's not going to be fun to be a double-impeached pariah former president

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BANNED. 

He’s banned from Twitter, banned from Facebook, banned from Instagram, banned from Tik Tok, banned from Snapchat, banned from Pinterest, banned from Reddit, banned from PayPal, banned from Apple, banned from YouTube, banned from a grand total of 15 online platforms, according to Buzzfeed News.  He can look forward to being banned from prestigious golf clubs, from upscale chic restaurants when they finally reopen, from high-end marinas where the 200 foot yachts of business titans tie-up, from private islands in the Caribbean, from tony private clubs like the Union and Metropolitan in New York and every one in London and other capitals around the world.  Trump can even look forward to being banned from travel to countries around the world that don’t want to be associated with him:  Germany, France, the countries of Scandinavia.  More will doubtlessly join a long, private no-fly list for Donald Trump.

It’s not going to be fun.  He used to be able to walk downstairs in the White House to the press room and command the attention of every legitimate big-time media source in the world.  What’s he going to do now, without his lifeblood Twitter?  How’s he going to get any of his little speeches seen without YouTube?  How is he going to raise money without PayPal and Apple Pay?  How is Melania going to sell her cast-offs without Ebay? 

Oh, he’ll still be able to play his own courses at his golf clubs in Virginia and New Jersey and Florida, but Scotland has banned him from travel there, so he won’t be playing his own links at Turnberry, and he’s sure as hell not going to be invited to play the prestigious courses at Winged Foot in Westchester County, Burning Tree and The Congressional near Washington D.C., or Shinnecock Hills and the National in the tony Hamptons on Long Island.  It was recently announced that the P.G.A. has canceled playing its prestigious championship in 2022 at Trump’s Bedminster Country Club, and Trump was described as “gutted” by one of the few “insiders” still hanging around the White House.

He’s still got his private 757, admittedly a step or two down from the presidential 747, Air Force One.  But where’s he going to go?  There is speculation he’ll take the Former President Trump Show on the road by holding his trademarked rallies in friendly red states and charge a $5.00 admission fee, and he can count on the MAGA-heads turning out to see him, but somebody did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, and without planning, preparation, and travel being paid for by the tax-payer, those rallies are looking like money-losers for him.

But the real question is, where is he going to get the time for any fun at all?  In the short term, he’s facing an impeachment trial in the Senate, where he’ll be fighting for his political life.  A guilty verdict will strip him of the right to ever run for office again in the United States, so there go his hopes to return to the White House in 2024.  And he’ll lose his $200,000 a year pension, his supplemental federal health insurance, a travel budget of up to a million dollars a year, and an office and bare-bones secretarial staff that is traditionally afforded to former presidents. 

He is facing multiple investigations of himself personally and his company, the Trump Organization, by state and federal prosecutors in New York, Florida and elsewhere. They are looking into Trump’s practice of valuing his properties high for the purposes of insuring them, and giving them bargain basement valuations when it comes to paying taxes. 

And then there are the lawsuits he already faces from women charging him with sexual abuse and in the case of E. Jean Carroll, defamation for lying about his rape of her in a Bergdorf’s dressing room. 

He’s going to have to deal with the hits the Trump “brand” is taking.  Business at his Trump hotels around the country was already down because of COVID and Trump’s falling popularity after losing the election in 2020.  Now they’re tanking, losing contracts for corporate retreats and conferences and shedding visitors like they have a case of hotel eczema.  Deutsche Bank, one of the last banks willing to do business with him, recently announced that it is “cutting ties,” with Trump, whatever that means.  He is in debt to them for more than $340 million, and that bill will be coming due in the next two years.  Signature Bank, which had helped Trump finance his Doral Golf Club in Florida and was a lender to his daughter Ivanka’s fashion company, announced it will not do business with the Trump family and is closing his two personal accounts, which according to sources contained about $5.3 million.  The bank also said it was closing the accounts of any members of congress who voted against certification of the election, the process the Congress was engaged in when Trump incited his raving mob to attack the Capitol on January 6. 

President-elect Biden will spend part of Wednesday afternoon after the Inauguration at a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.  He and Vice President Kamala Harris will be joined by former presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama.  (Carter is apparently too frail to travel.) Conspicuously absent from the gathering will be the only living former pariah president, Donald Trump.  It’s something he will no doubt have to get used to, not being invited to prestigious events at the White House and elsewhere in the nation’s capital like Kennedy Center Honors and State dinners given at the White House for visiting foreign dignitaries such as the presidents of friendly countries and the British royal family.  He was snubbed when he was in office, and now Trump will be snubbed as  a former president, a pariah in exile, a man without a country.