Assuming the Pubs have the House on January 3, 2029, How likely is it that they would elect Trump as Speaker of the House, not as an end-around the 22nd Amendment but more as a sinecure?
Not bloody.
I’d put higher odds on the Democrats, if they win the midterms, doing so, just to advertise how Increpid and demented trump is.
Can a sitting president be speaker? Is there a requirement for the speaker to turn up and attend sessions?
Would he have to actually do any work?
Swearing in the members.
The entire history of Trump consists of those words, “Not bloody likely”, so as a dismissal it is weak sauce, so weak as to be clear.
The problem is not whether or not the GOP would do this as an end run around Constitutional limits. They’ve amply demonstrated that they don’t care about the rule of law and will happily take an axe to democracy if it preserves their own power.
The problem with the plan is Trump specifically. It requires him to (a) accept a lower-ranked position and then (b) wait patiently, trusting that other people will do what’s necessary to reinstall him in the presidency. He is entirely incapable of fulfilling either requirement.
If we stop right there, it is not Trump specifically.
Most leaders will not accept a lower ranked position.
I can think of two presidents who did it (Taft, Chief Justice; John Quincy Adams, member of the House of Representatives) and at least a dozen who probably could have snagged a lower ranked position after leaving office, but did not (Carter? Obama? Jefferson?).
It may be unfair to other U.S. presidents to group them with Trump, but Donald’s fellow strongman leaders are also loathe to accept a lower ranked position.
As for whether he would accept a lower ranked position with the idea that it would allow him to get the higher ranked position soon after, it depends on how likely it is that such a nefarious plan would work, rather than on some unique feature of Trump’s personality. Fading strongmen rarely try something like that because it is unlikely to work.
I doubt his health will keep him alive that long.
Except that may not be the case. What if they accept he will not take on a third term, whether due to the Constitution or health. It wouldn’t really be a lower-position as opposed to not any position. More of a MAGA leader emeritus position.
See above. It may not be used as a backdoor to get him a third term. Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar.
That last part is the exact same problem I have with the saying Revenge is a dish best served cold. Trump has no more patience than Klingons and, as he’s proving on a daily, if not hourly, basis, cannot wait to exact his revenge.
I have a problem with the word plan as applied to Trump. I think he has degenerated past the point where he is able to make and execute plans. All he can do anymore is react to whatever is presented to him by his inner circle.
I think that he is not going to be able to act on any plan that requires agency on his part. If there is any long range plan for Trump, you have to ask what is in it for Bessant, Miller, Bondi, Russ Vought or Vance.
He’s been in office 287 days and not one of the enemies he mentions in speeches is in jail. This is NOT because he ordered them jailed and was refused. It is because he is waiting to try skipping over legal proceedings until he consolidates more power.
Trump does not order illegal actions until reasonably sure they will be carried out. Seems like patience to me.
Trump will take any position that he thinks will shield him from the law while allowing him to grift large.
Huh? He’s always ordering illegal actions. He doesn’t care if it’s even possible to have them carried out. He wants them done and the instant that want comes into his mind, he orders them.