You are correct. Unless there is an active arrest warrant, he can travel anywhere he wants.
I wonder if that may be a good way to get rid of him? Wait till he goes overseas and then issue a warrant against him. Let him stay overseas (and thus unable to run for office) or come back and get arrested.
In the end, isn't that the most important thing? Trump isn't exactly old, but I am guessing he is not in as good health as he thinks he is. His time with Covid probably caused more damage than he thinks (I am thinking this because someone I know, a Trumper, just died from his second time with Covid. Apparently his first time caused lung damage that he was in denial about, but he apparently learned that death can come for those who live in fringe fantasy worlds too and that Trump denialism doesn't always work.)
Best case scenario would be for Trump to leave the country before 2024 and never come back (or choke on a burger while he screams at Fox News, whichever comes first.) As long as he is around to stir up trouble, he will do so. But even he has limits, and fortunately he can't run for President if he is avoiding an arrest warrant overseas. Even if he ferments trouble over there, methinks he won't last long regardless. Russia may silence him, and Iran will certainly go after him for pulling that airstrip.
Let's hope he flees the country and fades into oblivion. I am sick to death of him and his followers. And if his followers start trouble and get violent, I say a law designating them as terrorists and being put on watch lists is justified. Freedom is important, bit so is security, and we have a constitutional right to be protected when Trumpers threaten our lives and security.
@polarberry The passports they took were the Presidential and diplomatic passports he was supposed to turn in when he left office. He kept his blue visitor passport. There was no reason to take the visitor passport. This was on MSNBC today.
I,too, am sick of him and his idiot followers. I am sick of him and vicious followers doxxing people putting threats and fear in their lives as they just did with the FBI agents who served the search warrant. I am sick of the ugly way his followers act, dress and yell. I am sick of them trampling on our right to live our lives as we are meant to live them. I am sick of them trying to force us to live their Handmaid nightmare. I am sick of their “christianity”. I am sick of their adoration of guns. I am sick of the lies, the cheating, the stealing.
Unlikely since I believe that would be an unlawful seizure. - @allyn?
To my understanding, no. He complained that they had taken "all three" of his passports, one of which was expired. Why did he have three?
Well, in addition to his normal blue one (which is the only one that could have "expired"), he would have had a black Presidential passport, and as a government official, he would also have had a red diplomatic passport. Those should have been surrendered on January 20, 2021 when he left office, but he still had them. Since those are legitimately gov't property, they were well within their rights to take them. As for the blue one, if it was expired, it would be unusable as official identification or for travel, and - again - if it was expired, they were within their rights to take it for destruction. If it was still valid, then yes, that might be a case for unlawful seizure, but I sincerely doubt that the DOJ would allow such a mistake to happen in this case.
he can't run for President if he is avoiding an arrest warrant overseas
Yes, he could. He would still meet all of the requirements (at least 34 years of age and a natural born citizen), and even if he were to be arrested and jailed, there's nothing in the law or Constitution that would prevent him from running or being elected. While under arrest or on trial, he would still have the rights and protections of the Constitution in that he would be considered innocent until proven guilty and therefore would still technically be eligible. Only a conviction under the Federal Records Act and/or the Espionage Act would automatically disqualify him from any gov't office.
It's all getting very confusing to me. I guess we just wait and see what happens. Much speculation going on and no one knows for certain, except the agencies, of course.
Qasim Rashid, a human-rights attorney, tweeted, "Frankly speaking, Trump is a flight risk. The judge should require he surrender his passport and his jet should be grounded."