Donald Trump may not yet have conceded defeat in the US presidential elections but it's a matter of when, not if he will leave the White House.
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US politics expert Markus Wagner believes "Trump will be Trump and shout and scream" but will eventually leave the White House.
"If Trump doesn't leave I think that is him sort of throwing a real hand grenade in the American constitutional system," he said.
"I think he will ultimately leave because he thrives through attention and he wants the attention but then will somehow go away, not quietly and not gracefully, but he will go away I think."
The bigger question the Associate Professor from the School of Law at the University of Wollongong, poses in his latest Conversation article is how long can Trump string things out - and, more importantly, what's the end game?
"The endgame are runoff elections which will be held in early January 2021 in Georgia. Those will determine the composition of the Senate and whether President-elect Biden has any chance to implement his economic, health care and climate policies," Mr Wagner said.
"It appears all these efforts are aimed at one goal: energising the Trumpian base for the Georgia run-off elections by delegitimising not only Biden, but the election process itself."
He added the actions of Republican senators was geared towards maintaining control of the Senate.
"And, they see Trump as a potential vehicle for that," Mr Wagner said.
"Republican senators need the president's base, which is not necessarily the same as the Republican base in order to maintain that control."
Under Georgia law, a runoff is required between the two candidates that came out on top if neither wins 50% of the vote in the state election.
The Republicans currently hold a 50-to-48-seat edge in the Senate, meaning control of the chamber now comes down to who wins the two Georgia runoffs.
Mr Wagner said the efforts by the Republicans to "energise" the Trumpian base for the Georgia run-off elections by delegitimising not only Biden, but the election process itself, have "momentous" long-term implications for the US.
"The US is already bitterly divided, as demonstrated by the large voter turnout on both sides in the election. This division will only deepen the more Trump presses his claims and signals he won't go away silently," he said.
"If half the country buys into his claims of a stolen election, the real danger is the erosion of democracy in the US as we know it."
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