Kremlin Annex protests continue at White House as new fences, 2020 concerns rise

The "Kremlin Annex" protests began in July 2018 after the Trump/Putin Helsink summit where Trump stood alongside Putin to deny Russian interference in the 2016 election. Over a year later, these protests continue, now on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. They've had to move a bit because of the "White House Fence Replacement" project, new fortifications going up to protect Trump from an increasingly angry public.

Sometimes the Kremlin Annex protests are on Penn Ave a bit east of their traditional location, which was centered in front of the White House in the "tourist photo" area but not on the White House side sidewalk. Increasingly it seems though that Penn Ave is closed off.

There are very serious concerns being raised by folks including Nancy Pelosi and even Trump's own former attorney Michael Cohen that Trump may refuse to leave office peacefully if he is defeated in the 2020 election. Trump faces a real risk of indictment, conviction, and prison on such charges as obstruction of justice (over Russiagate) if he ever loses his job as President. The Mueller report cited the DOJ's refusal to indict a sitting president as the reason for not calling him out on indictable offenses. Thus, Trump's best chance to stay out of prison is to attempt by any means to gain "President for Life" status, something his has previously praised other heads of dictatorial states for having to major conternation in mainstream US political circles.

Likely routes would include false claims of "massive voter fraud" repeating previously debunked GOP tropes. A disputed election could possibly be decided by the Supreme Court (see Bush vs Gore again)-but that has already been packed with GOP supporters. While John Roberts may worry about the court's credibility with the public,he may not be able to get a second GOP judge to break with Trump. Certainly Kavanaugh will be an influence for ruling in Trump's favor no matter what.

Also it is likely that in a contested election Donald Trump would call his alt-right supporters into the streets to back him up. We saw a little of that in Bush Vs Gore with the "Brooks Brothers Riot" forcibly stopping a ballot recount in Florida, but nothing like the huge street battles between defenders of the election results and alt-right marchers literally bearing torches for Trump we could possibly see this time around. With the real chance that Trump loses the election (all of the Dems are currently polling better than 5% leads over him) and the risk of battle in the streets around a disputed Inauguration, it is no wonder Trump or someone else in the White House is building new stronger fencing and fortifications around the building.

Kremlin Annex protesters on Aug 29

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