Some people are understandably worried that Trump and his henchmen are engaged in a slow-motion coup and may literally refuse to leave the White House. I do not share that concern because the Constitution is very clear and there are multiple barriers to doing that. Joe Biden will be inaugurated regardless of what Trump says or does.
With that said, if you need some more reassurance, today's reports may help.
Politico reports that Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has explicitly told White House staff to come up with last-minute orders Trump can sign before Biden is inaugurated.
Even as President Donald Trump refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, Meadows was asking aides on the call to give him three goals by the end of the week that could be accomplished by Biden’s inauguration, according to two people briefed on the conversation. Since then, staffers have compiled a list of roughly 15 moves they could make through executive orders, executive actions or finalizing agency rules that they plan to pursue in the coming days, according to interviews with three administration officials. [...]
Inside the Trump White House, Meadows, senior adviser Jared Kushner and White House counsel Pat Cipollone are leading the various discussions on last-minute policymaking.
Among other things, Trump could sign orders that place further restrictions on immigrant worker visas. His staff -- and I will infer this is coming from his top trade adviser Ron Vara Peter Navarro --- also want to take one last pass at sanctioning Chinese goods or companies for "national security" reasons.
Meanwhile, Axios reported this morning that Trump intends to use the rest of his term attacking Fox News so he can launch an alternative network of his own when he's out of the White House.
Trump is apparently never going to let go of the fact that Fox News called Arizona for Joe Biden even if that was the correct call.
Some Trump advisers think Fox News made a mistake with an early call (seconded by AP) of President-elect Biden's win in Arizona. That enraged Trump, and gave him something tangible to use in his attacks on the network.
"He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it," said a source with detailed knowledge of Trump's intentions. [...]
Trump's digital offering would likely charge a monthly fee to MAGA fans. Many are Fox News viewers, and he'd aim to replace the network — and the $5.99-a-month Fox Nation streaming service, which has an 85% conversion rate from free trials to paid subscribers — as their top destination.
So -- yeah -- Biden hasn't been inaugurated yet and there remains a small chance that Trump has a few more levers of devilry to pull, but people close to him are also considering specific price models for whatever he does next.
I just want to make a quick prediction here: whatever Trump announces or has plans for will not turn out the way he thinks if it turns out at all. I do not believe his family's hold on the GOP will hold for another four years, either, because they're going to spend the rest of their lives mired in legal and financial distress. I doubt the Trump Organization will even make it to 2023 without declaring bankruptcy.
The MAGA network will be a failure if it ever gets off the ground and if he announces he's running for president in 2024 in the final days of 2020, that's not going to happen either. If I'm wrong I'll call myself out in four years.