# Hypothetical: At what point did you toss “Trump: The Novel” as being too preposterous? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 12, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105 "2017-07-12T16:43:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2017, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/21 "2017-07-12T21:14:37Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Is Trump a real person or a fictional construct in this hypothetical? It’s the same guy as the real world. You are just being given a glimpse of the future in novel form. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/22 "2017-07-17T16:05:09Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > It’s June of 2015 and bored, with a few hours to kill and a dead cell phone, you pick up a copy of “Trump: The Novel” which effectively is a novelization of everything that happened from his announcement in July 2015, onward. Sitting down, you start reading… > > 1. What type of book would you classify it? Spy thriller? Political drama? Surreal comedy? > > 2. At what point did you toss the book to the side, saying “Bullshit. There’s no way. Anything that happens after this point is really irrelevant because in The Real World, this wouldn’t happen.”? > > 3. How do you think it ends? Still reading to get to that point! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/23 "2017-07-17T16:10:43Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > It’s the same guy as the real world. You are just being given a glimpse of the future in novel form. You could just watch \*Idiocracy \*and save some time. \*Network \*too was intended to be a cautionary dystopia, not a documentary of the future. Or present. > [@wolfman](#): > > Ivanka cackles as she watched it all on TV from the penthouse tower of her new real estate empire. Seated on the Iron Throne? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/24 "2017-07-17T17:33:21Z")
1. Classification: Theater of the Absurd. 2. Hard to say when it jumped the shark. There was the press conference, where the FBI director spent an hour outlining felony behaviors, then refused to recommend prosecution. There was the part when people who spent the last 60 years denouncing McCarthyism, suddenly become zealous anti-Russian cold warriors. There was the part when people who spent the last few election cycles claiming that voter fraud was a myth, suddenly became convinced that the election was hacked. 1. How does it end? It depends on the 2018 elections. If Democrats gain control of both houses of Congress, he will be impeached and removed from office, regardless of the evidence. If Republicans retain control of both houses of Congress, he will finish his term, regardless of the evidence. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/25 "2017-07-17T18:12:54Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > There was the part when people who spent the last 60 years denouncing McCarthyism, suddenly become zealous anti-Russian cold warriors. McCarthyism was looking for communist sympathizers among American citizens, without regard to any actual contact with Soviet operatives. Basically people were being persecuted for thought crimes. Different that what is happening this year. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/26 "2017-07-17T19:39:34Z")
Pretty much the same thing. Rooskie Spies ! The Ivans Are Coming ! ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/27 "2017-07-17T22:31:34Z")
1. A political parody, like something Jonathon Swift would write, or a O Henry story or a Will Rogers column. 2. I could believe Trump getting big-league exposure all summer, rolling through a raucous convention, and flubbing and flustering through the debates. After all, it was crazy Republicans that were shooting themselves in the foot. BUT - when he actually wins the election, that’s totally unbelievable. Republicans might be that stupid, but certainly not the whole country. I’d stop at that point, thinking “what an imagination the author has”. I had the same reaction the next morning as in [Samantha Bee Dreams that Hillary Won](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPJtYeUC8x8) - except that the reality is the dream that we can’t wake up from. 1. It ends on the day after the inauguration with Trump resigning, saying “Just kidding!” - he’s got what he wants: he proves he can win, and his name goes into the history books. I keep hoping this happens any day now. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/28 "2017-07-17T23:01:38Z")
1. As others have said, farcical political satire. 2. I’m still reading it because its hilarious, but I don’t believe its real any more than I believe that the US would unconditionally surrender to the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. The point at which it became unbelievable was when Trump won the nomination. Yes the Republicans have some bad ideas but most of them aren’t that stupid. 3. it will end with complete nuclear Armageddon. Such an over the top farce has to have an even more over the top ending. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/29 "2018-07-22T03:32:22Z")
The whole story became an exercise in suspending disbelief the minute Trump was nominated. It became unreadable when Trump raced to Moscow to give Putin his public tongue bath. And it should be burned when Putin arrives at the White House, presumably to pee on a bed in the Obamas’ former bedroom while our illegitimate president looks on. I’d have to characterize it as more of a bad horror novel than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/30 "2018-07-22T03:33:26Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > It’s June of 2015 and bored, with a few hours to kill and a dead cell phone, you pick up a copy of “Trump: The Novel” which effectively is a novelization of everything that happened from his announcement in July 2015, onward. Sitting down, you start reading… > > 1. What type of book would you classify it? Spy thriller? Political drama? Surreal comedy? > > 2. At what point did you toss the book to the side, saying “Bullshit. There’s no way. Anything that happens after this point is really irrelevant because in The Real World, this wouldn’t happen.”? > > 3. How do you think it ends? [In fire.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_jNklBqVCA) ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/31 "2018-07-22T17:22:06Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Around the time he said, “they’re rapists”. While I despise Trump as much as the next human, I’ve always thought this was an unnecessary criticism - couldn’t that line plausibly be transcribed as “their rapists”? Still abhorrent, but not as bad as labelling all Mexicans as rapists. ---
**Author:** ![katgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@katgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/32 "2018-07-22T17:28:17Z")
It was all funny until the night he won. Now we’re in the Twilight Zone. And it will have a creepy, oh shit moment of an ending. Him saying “why can’t we use them?” has always bothered me. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/33 "2018-07-23T03:05:28Z")
The genre would have to be “Alt-Right gun fetishist pre-apocalyptical political fanfiction”. A guy who embraces all the worst traits of the the Alt-Right, who despite being a complete piece of crap, manages to “show those libruls who’s boss”, by winning the election and empowering the White Nationalist movement to expand its base. This is only the first volume, and it ends on a cliffhanger when he finally manages to start a civil war. I probably stopped reading it at the “very fine people” incident, open pandering to Nazis being too far-fetched, even for bad fanfiction. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/34 "2018-07-23T03:11:08Z")
> [@Staggerlee](#): > > While I despise Trump as much as the next human, I’ve always thought this was an unnecessary criticism - couldn’t that line plausibly be transcribed as “their rapists”? Still abhorrent, but not as bad as labelling all Mexicans as rapists. Even with that charitable reading, he’s still saying that Mexicans are sending their rapists to the US, so it’s not much better. But that reading really [doesn’t make much sense in context](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/08/donald-trumps-false-comments-connecting-mexican-immigrants-and-crime/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.27aabb5544af): > [@](#): > > “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” eight instances of “They’re”, as a verb, or seven verbs and a “Their”? I think they first is more likely. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/35 "2018-07-23T05:28:58Z")
The novel just took a darker turn: “To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!” It’s like reading “Under the Dome” and realizing that meth lab is gonna _blow_. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/36 "2018-07-23T16:16:07Z")
In January 2016 [I posted a summary of Chapter 1 of a Political thriller](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18982118) but three weeks later announced there’d be no Chapter 2. Truth was already getting stranger than fiction! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/37 "2018-07-23T17:38:36Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > The novel just took a darker turn: > > “To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!” > > It’s like reading “Under the Dome” and realizing that meth lab is gonna _blow_. And it’s a plot hole, anyway- it was established several chapters back that the entire country of Iran can’t see Twitter! Get a damn editor, guys- I mean, hell, “Collusion” is spelled with two Ls, ferchrissakes. And come on, “Christopher Steele” is way too over-the-top for the name of an ex-spy. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/38 "2018-07-24T15:47:02Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > 1. At what point did you toss the book to the side, saying “Bullshit. There’s no way. Anything that happens after this point is really irrelevant because in The Real World, this wouldn’t happen.”? The whole confiscation of Weiner’s laptop for dick pics. A few weeks before the election? Notification to congress? The guy’s name is Weiner? \*Really? \* ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/39 "2018-07-24T16:03:23Z")
> [@katgirl](#): > > It was all funny until the night he won. Now we’re in the Twilight Zone. And it will have a creepy, oh shit moment of an ending. Him saying “why can’t we use them?” has always bothered me. Yes, the Trump show is a bad rewrite of [Stephen Kings the Twilight Zone.](https://theoutline.com/post/3576/david-cronenberg-stephen-king-the-dead-zone-accidental-trump-allegory?zd=1&zi=4ulgzoe3) ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2018, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105/40 "2018-07-25T01:34:49Z")
Please, it’s [already been written](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged). Didn’t read it then, not gonna read it now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-at-what-point-did-you-toss-trump-the-novel-as-being-too-preposterous/791105.md?page=3)