As of yesterday, more than 100,000 Americans have died because of the novel coronavirus. The president continues to tell us what a great job he has done combating it, but the dead don’t listen. The living are asking if we will ever see Donald Trump move out of the White House.

There are those who think we may never see Trump willingly abandon the White House. They are convinced even if he loses to Joe Biden this fall, the Donald will refuse to step down—no matter how many “hamberders” you toss at him.

Among them are Bill Maher. “I’ve been saying for a very long time now that I don’t think he’s leaving,” Maher said on his show Friday night. “He could lose by a landslide in 2020 and I still think he would say, ‘It’s rigged, fake news, deep state.’ I just don’t think you’re going to get him out of there.”

Trump is already sowing the seeds. He howls “Deep state,” “Rigged election,” “Voter fraud” and “Enemy of the people” like a coyote with its leg caught in a steel trap. That, coupled with the recent incidents involving armed protesters in the Michigan State House and at the Kentucky governor’s mansion, are seen as grim portents that Trump will call out the shock troops and maybe even take lives if he loses in November and refuses to leave 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

While this is a gloom-and-doom scenario, we are talking about Donald Trump. Virtually anything is possible with a man who publicly recommends injecting disinfectant to cure a virus.

His crazy train was in hyperdrive this week. His latest show-stopper was to accuse former Florida Republican congressman and current MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough of murder. Though there is no evidence of it and family members of the victim in question begged Trump to stop spreading lies, the president didn’t stop.

Meanwhile, Twitter executives slapped fact warnings on two Trump tweets about mail-in ballots. Trump had a response for that—on Twitter, of course. “Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post. Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!”

For those who do not understand the hilarity of that tweet, as well as the shallow, tone-deaf nature of it, the First Amendment is there to protect individuals from government censorship. Twitter is a corporate entity, and Trump is the government. When he yanks press credentials, that’s a move against the First Amendment. When a company fact-checks him, they’re not stifling anything; they’re just being responsible. His threats to “not allow it to happen” are as hollow as his hapless head.

But we know Trump really loves the First Amendment because his new press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, told us so in a press briefing last week. On Friday, the Donald spent about two minutes in the Brady Briefing Room, announcing that the nation’s churches could reopen. If governors didn’t like it they could call the Donald. But don’t expect the Donald to be sympathetic, he told us. He wants the churches open—now!

He hasn’t the authority to do what he wants there either, but that didn’t keep his press secretary from telling the world what a fan of the First Amendment the president is for allowing and encouraging congregants to gather freely in petri dishes of their choice.

I might buy this fanboy notion of the First Amendment if I had been in a vegetative state the past three and a half years. During that time Trump has tried to take my press pass and Jim Acosta’s, as well as continually tweeted how the press is “the enemy of the people,” the “lamestream media” and “fake news.”

After McEnany’s defense of Trump Friday, she tried to end her briefing by telling the 14 reporters gathered in the briefing room what the press should be covering. She provided questions we should be asking and said she’d check up on us to make sure we were doing it.

A civics refresher course: The government is responsible to the people. We ask the questions in briefings to see what our representatives are doing. Repeat: We ask the questions. The government supplies the answers. Not the other way around.

By Tuesday Trump was knee-deep into his accusations against Scarborough, and McEnany, the woman who promised never to lie to us in the briefing room a few short weeks ago, was deflecting and dodging our questions and denying the president’s words. She then doubled down on Scarborough and referred to a Don Imus interview Scarborough gave years ago to justify Trump’s continuing accusations.

Then came the slap in the face by Twitter.

The Scarborough Affair didn’t have anyone singing “parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.” It had even the most battle-weary reporters cringing as they tried to hold Trump accountable. But Trump previously told us he accepts no responsibility for America’s handling of the virus, so we should not be surprised when we see his reactions to any stimuli. He’s nuts. He may be amusing or make our blood boil, but we cannot afford to cringe when we think about the president’s exit strategy from the White House.

Maher is correct to note Trump’s compulsive need for the limelight, his tendency to rule with the mendacity of a despot and his likely reluctance to leave the White House. His recent actions once again show his willingness to lie, obfuscate and confuse by any means necessary, real or (usually) imagined. He’s not above accusing someone of murder without evidence. By implication, if he decides to push back should he lose the election—no doubt it will be an ugly fight.

At least that’s what Trump wants you to think. He thrives on fear and chaos. It is the fear of his minions crying havoc or “voter fraud” and letting slip the dogs of war—or at least the threat of a war—that Trump will use as a bargaining chip.

Still, that’s not the real Donald Trump. The old man may be crazy, but he remains a narcissist who likes to think he can make a deal. Let him go quietly with a pardon and a promise of no federal investigations and he’ll go quietly. I’m not saying this move should be made; I’m saying it is one scenario by which Trump could voluntarily leave the White House.

Then, after he’s gone, liquidate his assets. Turn every Trump Tower into a homeless shelter. Take the rest of the assets and earmark them for public education. That should settle things nicely.

There is another scenario. If he views leaving as a personal defeat, Trump might leave only when the Secret Service comes in and tosses him and his personal belongings into the street—which they may well do. In point of fact, the Secret Service is the nation’s best defense against Donald Trump. While the officers there are pledged to protect the president of the United States, if Trump loses the election, it is doubtful the Secret Service will allow him to claim squatters’ rights to the mansion.

The key is to make sure he leaves in such a manner that his hornet’s nest of eager supporters don’t go on a wild rampage. Some of his supporters are not as empty with their threats as Donald is.

He likes to spend his nights in the Lincoln Bedroom, downing an ice cold Coke and a Big Mac while cheering Sean Hannity on Fox. But the shame is, he actually missed his calling. His theatrics make him a good candidate for horror-show writer, as long as he could dictate his screenplays to eager young assistants who’d follow him and allow him to cheat on a round of golf.

Yes, though Trump loves the chaos, he also loves golf. He hit the links twice last weekend while the deaths from the coronavirus approached 100,000, and Trump praised his administration’s effort in becoming the country with more deaths than any other due to the pandemic.

At the end of the day Trump doesn’t want to run the country; he wants to run a kingdom. He’d rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. So give him a hell to reign over. I hear Elba is nice this time of year. Let him build a Trump Tower there—and move into it. Let him play golf on one course the rest of his life. Let him live lonely, with no power and no attention.

Then encourage him to pursue the horror fiction genre. He certainly has the experience. And the world would be a better place.