Unlike some former presidents, who largely retreat from view after leaving office, it appears that Trump intends to remain in the public eye. In his farewell speech, Trump promised Americans that he “will be back in some form.”
After four years in office, United States President Donald Trump has the dubious distinction of having been impeached twice by the House of Representatives – a first for any president. Adding insult to injury, just days before his exit, The Pew Research Center released the results of a survey showing that 68% of Americans don’t want Trump to remain a major political figure.
But unlike some former presidents, who largely retreat from view after leaving office, it appears that Trump intends to remain in the public eye. In his farewell speech, Trump promised Americans that he “will be back in some form.”
This remark has left many wondering what might come next for the former president.
Before his unprecedented White House run, Trump was well known for embarking on massive business ventures, but such ventures might prove difficult for Trump to finance going forward.
Following the riots at the Capitol building on January 6, Deutsche Bank and Signature Bank said they would no longer be working with the former president.
Trump has taken out two personally guaranteed mortgages from Deutsche Bank worth US$340 million that will need to be paid back in 2023 and 2024.
Signature Bank said in a statement that they would be closing two of the president’s accounts containing around US$5 million, declaring, “Signature Bank pledges it will not do business in the future with any members of Congress who voted to disregard the Electoral College.”
Trump stepped down from running the Trump Organization once he became president and his return is likely to be complicated by the legal challenges awaiting him.
“Assuming he wants to continue building his business empire, he will have to overcome the momentum which he lost during his presidency,” business revenue consultant Doug C. Brown told TMS. “Trump is not starting from zero … but he’s been out of the game for four years and will likely have to pick up momentum again, even as the banks and others have pulled away from him.”
Brown also addressed the possibility that Trump could move on to other things.
“The future of Donald Trump’s business empire depends on his next goal,” he said. “Most people assume that he will continue to keep building upon an empire, and maybe he will … It’s possible that as a billionaire he might decide to take a different path after the presidency.”
After being deplatformed by most major social media companies – including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – there has been speculation that Trump might start his own media company, though there has been no substantive evidence to support this claim.
There is also the much discussed possibility that Trump will run for a second presidential term in 2024, which would be unusual but not entirely unprecedented. President Grover Cleveland was elected to nonconsecutive terms, first from 1885 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897. Winning another election would also make Trump the first president in history to win a term after being impeached.
While the majority of Americans indicate they don’t want Trump to be a prominent political figure in the future, the former president’s base appears to largely be intact, giving him a foundation on which to potentially rebuild his political empire.
But such a path could be rendered impossible depending on how the Senate impeachment trial goes in February. Senators could vote to ban Trump from running for public office in the future. This possibility has received some bipartisan support, though the majority of Republican Senators still appear to oppose convicting the former president.
Trump’s ambitions now that he’s out of office are still largely unknown, but it’s widely expected that he will continue to make waves in some form.
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