A member of my family today posed a question I’ve not yet heard anyone else ask out loud.
“Do you think,” my family member asked, “that if Joe Biden is still around whether he would grant Donald Trump a full state funeral in case Trump were to die while Biden is in office?”
I don’t need to ask for a show of hands, but I’d bet real American money that more than one of us has given that question some thought.
I am one American who has thought it … but never said it publicly.
Suppose that the former president is not yet indicted, or tried or convicted of a crime before he keels over. Does he deserve a state funeral, the kind given, for example, to former President George H.W. Bush? If he does, who should show up? Who would pay their respects to the 45th POTUS?
To be sure, I would not be one of them. Trump still seems to command a substantial enough following to attract a large crowd of admirers to whatever funeral is arranged.
Does he lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda? Does the current president order flags lowered to half-staff? Does any dignitary whom Trump hasn’t insulted, vilified or defamed dare speak on his behalf? Do Americans take any salute to Trump seriously?
You see, these are the kinds of things that rattle around in my noggin these days as I watch the drama play out into whether the Justice Department or local district attorneys are going to indict the ex-POTUS and then put him on trial for multiple crimes.
One of them happens to be inciting an insurrection against the very government he took an oath to “defend and protect.”
Absent an indictment and a conviction, though, Trump is entitled to the legal presumption of innocence, which I suppose determines whether he would get a presidential sendoff that some would say he deserves.
The floor is now open for discussion.