You can’t get elected if you don’t count the votes. That requires a joint session of congress. If due to an unprecedented emergency the congress cannot come into session there’s no clear rule what happens.
Any number of emergent events may create an emergency preventing the congress from gathering. The congress are collaborators and the Supreme Court is compromised.
I was under the impression that the 20th amendment would still terminate his term on January 20th, noon. In the absence of an elected president, the line of succession as defined in the Presidential Succession Act would kick in, meaning you got a Speaker of the House becoming president (if one exists), and if not, the Senate's president pro tempore.
Not entirely sure where you see murky and undefined situations...
Trump was giddy at that Zelenskiy meeting a few months ago, when he heard elections were suspended in Ukraine due to the war. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bvUBtdHw3g4 Said something like "So, if in 3.5 years, we are in a war... no more elections. Oh, that's good."
Yeah, and who's going to force the issue? The minute someone kicks over a trashcan it'll be declared as the latest national emergency and the loyal forces of law and order will be told to terminate whiny radicals in sight. Would you have believed anyone who told you five years ago that there would be masked federal cops snatching people off the street in broad daylight by 2025?
Any number of emergent events may create an emergency preventing the congress from gathering. The congress are collaborators and the Supreme Court is compromised.