By Nikhila Natarajan
New York, Nov 9 (IANS): Donald Trump's former personal lawyer cum fixer who reportedly placed a $10,000 bet on Trump's election loss and predicted that he won't accept the result brings new tidings from his Trump-y crystal ball: The current occupant of the White House will run away to Mar-a-Lago during Christmas, never return to the White House and will get so hounded by "insane litigation" that he'll have no time to plan a 2024 return to politics.
"I'm actually very relieved. I'm relieved not just for myself, but I'm relieved for the entire country," Michael Cohen, Trump's former fixer said in his first burst of public remarks after the Biden-Harris victory lap.
Cohen forecasts that "madman king" Trump will be a "thorn in Biden's thigh", won't go quietly into the night, and "create a Trump media house" by roping in former chief strategist Steve Bannon. Bannon is the mastermind of Trump's 2016 win and a key player in the now-defunct Cambridge Analytica's microtargeting campaign on Facebook.
"He's bigger than most media stations, and he's going to create one, he's going to sow more chaos, with more fake information, disseminated out there," Cohen said of post-2020 Trump.
Will Trump concede? Cohen thinks "You got the wrong guy for that!"
"I'll tell you what my theory is. You know, Christmas time, he heads to Mar-a-Lago, and I don't believe he comes back to Washington. I think he stays at Mar-a-Lago all the way through the inauguration, I wouldn't be shocked if he doesn't show up to the inauguration either."
Cohen is going to town with tales of his former boss who "cannot let the camera look at him" in the role of a "loser".
"And it's killing him," says Cohen.
"Donald Trump cannot walk away from this. Forget about his own personal reasons, the legal issues that are going to come at him are voluminous!"
Cohen, who knows a thing or two about the inner workings of legal peril, believes Trump is going to face "insane litigation" that could send Trump Inc into "financial ruin" and affect Trump's "freedom" in terrible ways.
"No, he's not gonna run again. He's gonna have to deal with litigation issues, he won't have time to concentrate on a potential run, especially when the lawsuits start flying both civil and criminal."
With almost-eerie precision, Cohen had foretold Trump's next steps well before election day: "He will not concede. Never, ever, ever. I believe he's going to challenge the validity of the vote in each and every state he loses-claiming ballot fraud, seeking to undermine the process and invalidate it."
Trump's imminent return to private life is shrouded by the overhang of legal threats. When Trump loses the immunity that his current position allows him, the real trouble begins, according to several legal scholars. Threats loom largest in Trump's hometown New York City.
Until now, Trump has managed to escape New York's effort to get his tax records. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has been conducting a criminal investigation into Trump and his company's business dealings. New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating whether Trump and his company committed tax fraud.