CNN has a long story about Donald Trump’s last days in office, where he is isolated, angry and in need of a diaper change, one would assume. Much of the piece is just typical sad-sack sh-t making Trump look pathetic, but even then… there’s this energy like Donald Trump didn’t send a terrorist mob to kill Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi and others in Congress. This is NOT typical sad-sack lame-duck sore loser sh-t. Just because Trump has been largely neutered following the terrorist attack he orchestrated and incited, doesn’t mean any of us should have one iota of sympathy for his current bullsh-t. Some highlights:

Trump is playing the role of victim & he’s banned the name “Nixon”. Trump has been consumed by the unraveling of his presidency during his last days in office, according to people around him, which included a casual discussion among advisers recently about a possible resignation. Trump shut the idea down almost immediately. And he has made clear to aides in separate conversations that mere mention of President Richard Nixon, the last president to resign, were banned. He told one adviser during an expletive-laden conversation recently never to bring up the ex-president ever again. During the passing mention of resigning this week, Trump told people he couldn’t count on Vice President Mike Pence to pardon him like Gerald Ford did Nixon, anyway.

One last Nazi rally? Eager for a final taste of the pomp of being president, Trump has asked for a major send-off on Inauguration Day next week, according to people familiar with the matter, before one last presidential flight to Palm Beach.

Sullen desolation. He has grown more and more worried about what legal or financial calamities may await him when he is no longer president, people who have spoken to him said, fueled by warnings from lawyers and advisers. He is weighing pardons, including for himself and his family, as he attempts to muster a legal team for another impeachment trial. And he is resentful of Republicans who he feels abandoned him in his hour of need, including the GOP leaders of the House and Senate.

A farewell Nazi address? Aides have pleaded with Trump to deliver some type of farewell address, either live or taped, that would tick through his accomplishments in office. But he has appeared disinterested and noncommittal. On Thursday, it was Pence carrying out tasks ordinarily left to a president, like visiting national guardsmen posted at the US Capitol or visiting White House operators to say farewell.

Trump does plan to leave the White House on the morning of the 20th: As one of their final acts, Trump’s team is working to organize a crowd to see him off on the morning of Biden’s inauguration, when he plans to depart Washington while still president and is expecting a major send-off. Trump told people he did not like the idea of departing Washington for a final time as an ex-president, flying aboard an airplane no longer known as Air Force One. He also did not particularly like the thought of requesting the use of the plane from Biden, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A letter to Biden? For now, Trump is undecided on whether he will pen a letter to Biden to leave in the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Some of his advisers have encouraged him to think about continuing the tradition. Early in his presidency, Trump liked to show off to visitors the letter he received from President Barack Obama, which included the now-prescient line: “Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.”

The original plan was to leave on the 19th: Initially, Trump had planned to depart the White House a day early. But he now plans to leave on the morning of January 20. His departure aboard Marine One from the White House South Lawn will likely be visible and audible to the Bidens, who will spend the night before the inauguration at Blair House, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the executive mansion. Its use was offered to them by the State Department rather than the Trumps, who refuse to make contact with the incoming president and first lady.

Will he still try to self-pardon? He has also been lashing out at aides, allies and lawyers trying to protect him from criminal exposure following his role in inciting rioters during last week’s insurrection attempt at the US Capitol. Some of his attorneys have tried to explain that his notion of a self-pardon may not hold up, which has led some inside Trump’s circle to believe he is less likely to attempt it before he leaves office.

[From CNN]

Out of all of the niceties extended from an outgoing president to an incoming president, the letter on the Resolute Desk is one of the least important. If he does “write” one, I can only imagine the chicken-scratched, illiterate lies within. As for comparisons to Nixon… like, not to be a Nixon apologist, but Nixon wasn’t a f–king terrorist. He was a deeply corrupt man, but at a fundamental level, the dude was competent and intelligent and he had a sense of shame. Trump has none of that. I’m worried about Trump’s insistence on a final Nazi rally, and all of that as well. He’ll probably try to incite another terrorist attack.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.