I don’t think Pence has a chance in Hell of succeeding Trump. It will be Don Jr. or Ivanka. Don Sr. is famous for giving no loyalty and stiffing people that work for him.
Does Pence really think Trumps will repay his loyalty?
It will be interesting to see if Trump starts a Trump 2024 campaign fund right after he wins re-election.
Normally, I’d say pretty high. Generally, a sitting VP is first in line to at least take a crack at the top job.
But Trump isn’t really a politician nor a Republican. He’s not going to play by the rules. Pence has been loyal - at least in public - and Trump will value that. But how that impacts and decision on who else enters the race? God knows.
I don’t think it will be Pence, but I doubt it will be one of the Trump kids either.
If Trump does win re-election, it’ll most likely be by a squeaker. And he will likely spend the next four years getting into pointless pissing matches with anyone who refuses to kiss his ass, and exacerbating whatever crises come his way. And, of course, there’s a good chance he’ll drop the ball again if COVID-19 has a resurgence.
So, what I’m saying is that his name will be mud by the end of his second term, and whoever the Republican nominee is will be running away as fast as they can from the Trump brand, same as Republicans did with Bush in 2008. Sure, they may still go through the motions of accepting his endorsement (that is if Trump even chooses to endorse) and maybe even have a few kinds words for his “leadership,” in a half-hearted attempt to curry favor with the die hards. And they’ll most likely be pushing the same set of policies as Trump. But for the most part they won’t even utter the word “Trump” on the campaign trail.
Maybe I’m being a tad too optimistic here, but the American electorate can be very fickle. And, I’m not saying that most Trump voters will suddenly start voting Democrat, just like they didn’t start voting Democrat after Bush. They’ll just pretend he never existed.
Pence is only useful as a VP. He has no charisma, isn’t photogenic, there’s nothing particularly appealing about him. Like Cheney, he would be dead in the water as a presidential candidate.
Republicans will want a minority or woman candidate by then. Someone like Nikki Haley. Or maybe a competent, younger version of Trump, like Tom Cotton.
If and when Trump is re-elected, Pence will run in 2024 and probably get the nom, but he won’t win. Bush 41 pulled it off, but Reagan is much more popular and has longer coat-tails than Trump. The public likes to switch parties every eight years or so, more often than not.
Unless Trump dies or leaves office during his second term - then all bets are off. Same for whoever becomes President if Biden wins and then dies or melts down.
The President in 2025 will be somebody who isn’t on the radar right now. Biden, Warren, Sanders, and Hillary will be dead or incapacitated by then, or too old to be taken seriously.
First, Donald will spend the better part of four years taunting us about running for a third term, even though the mechanics of what he would have to go through to become “eligible” would practically incite armed rebellion. So after he backs down – “I was just being sarcastic to make fools of all the White House reporters!” – he’ll ask the faithful to nominate the next best thing for him. One of the dopey kids.
Tiffany can’t run until 2028. She will be 35 and 2 weeks old for that election. She graduates Georgetown law this year , I wonder if Trump makes them hold a ceremony so he can go? I guess not since they are not federally owned like West Point. He may try anyway.
If Trump loses in 2020, my guess is the dominoes will start to fall. We’ll probably see Don Jr., Eric, Jared and even Ivanka will be indicted (probably convicted) on one or more charges.
I would hope that would be enough to keep them off the ticket.
I want to say that I am sorry that I didn’t think to check on a thread for this exact thing last night before starting this thread. Then I check the board this morning and boom…there it is.
It would have been more embarrassing if I had posted in that thread.
FWIW, I think Trump could have Pence publicly stoned to death and evangelicals would hand wave it away.
I think if Biden wins I don’t think he will want any Trump people to serve jail time for federal crimes. They could get probation or house arrest. For states like NY they may not want to go easy on the family.