Speculation

Voters: You're fired. Get out.
Office Holder: No, I won't, and you can't make me.

   Speculation has already begun that the president may refuse to leave office if he loses a re-election bid next year.
   He spent so much time complaining that the presidential election was "rigged" against him last time around that it must have been a surprise when he won. Actually, some say the election was indeed rigged, but he did the rigging.
   Nevertheless, he insisted that he really did win the popular vote, had it not been for massive and sweeping fraudulent and illegal voting by undocumented aliens nationwide. He became president because he won the electoral vote, but that didn't stop him from whining that he also won the popular vote despite all evidence to the contrary.
   Will he reprise the same chant next year and use that as a reason not to leave office in January 2021?
   TV commentators are already talking about that possibility, and that raises the question of what the Secret Service and the White House police force will do.
   The White House police force was formed in 1922, initially supervised directly by the president or his representative. It became part of the Secret Service in 1930 and is now known as the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service.
   Suppose the president refuses to recognize the election results and refuses to step down, following the example of the current president of Venezuela? Will the Secret Service escort the American president from the White House, forcibly if need be? And how will his supporters react?
   The Secret Service is responsible for the safety of current and former presidents, but the agency's loyalty may well be tested if the president refuses to leave office.
   That raises the question of whether the agency's loyalty lies primarily to Individual 1 or to the nation.
   Let's hope that question never comes up. But considering current and past behavior by this president, it might.