If he has designated a successor, he has managed to keep it a secret…something which he has shown a general lack of ability to do.
Unlike other dictators, such as Franco and Kim Il-Sung, Trump simply does not care about the country or his successor(s). Franco groomed Juan Carlos as a replacement. Kim Il-Sung groomed Kim Jong-Il. Those successors received education or training in running the government. By no means would I consider their trainers benevolent, but at some level, those dictators had concern for their country. Possibly their real concern was to preserve their legacy. Trump has no such concern. Any praise for him, he wants now. He needs to have his ego stroked now. Other dictators realize there would be a legacy to either be preserved or discarded. Trump does not realize that. And that’s because he’s stupid.
Right. And with the current machinations of his toadies in Congress, you see how important they, and he, see the importance of that office: it is not for getting anything done. It’s a wild card for Trump to use to stay in office. Trump thought the veep is the Joker while he is the Mighty back in January of 2021. He still believes that. Now the question is: *Did he come to that conclusion by himself or was he told that’s the way it is? The answer to that question, of course, is he was told that. He’s too stupid to come up with it by himself.
What happens if Vance does get elected in 2028? Remember one of the main talking (I really want to call them blathering) points is Trump runs as the VP candidate. The aforementioned machinations include Vance stepping down immediately so the electroplated one can resume his dictatorship. If Vance does not step down, do not think for a moment he will survive. And I’m not just talking about political survival.
The over-riding need he has is to have his ego stroked. That’s not going to happen unless he gets to brag. And what better bragging than being able to show all the secret stuff he actually does have access to? That alone is why there’s no such thing as a secret with him.
As if Trump would ever accept even pretending to be the second-most important person.
But that’s not what it means to him or his toadies. It’s a “genius” plan to keep him as president. It’s not the office that makes him second-most imporant. It’s he who makes the office the most important one, more important than president, for just one day.
How would that work out? If Vance is elected to the office it will be because he worked for it. Trump will have coattails - for good or ill, but Vance will be the name on the ballot. If a ticket with Vance’s name on the top of it gets a majority in the electoral college in 2028, god forbid, then Vance will be president. He will have the military and the surviving machinery of the civil service both at his command. More or less. I don’t see any force that could force him to resign in Trumps favor. Leaving out that Trump couldn’t be vice president on such a ticket either.
Power, as Mao had it, comes from the barrel of a gun. I always thought that was false. As Mao very well knew, power comes from having the ability to get the men with the guns to point them at someone else. Trump’s ability to command the men with the guns will evaporate when his term does, and I do not see any way he could have any hold over Vance - or anyone else - that could cause them to give him an extension to his term.
Of course this assumes marginally honest elections, and no prospect of a military coup. Things aren’t looking good, but I don’t think they are that bad yet.
As mentioned above, the plan is to use the ticket to get him back into office after an instant once Vance is inaugurated. Do I for a moment believe any of this is legal or constitutional? Not by a long shot! But that’s the plan. So, it’s not really Vance working for the office for himself. It’s the party working to have their bestest mostest wonderful prez back in the Oval Office to continue saving the country.
Will the military overthrow Vance if he does not step down? Of course not. It will be one of the faithful who will take out the last remaining obstacle.
Trump’s barely coherent or aware of his surroundings these days as it is. I seriously doubt he’s going to be able to even run three years from now, let alone pull off a coup.
In these circumstances, Vance would have both the Military and the SS backing him. I doubt any of the faithful will get through that. Unless they get very lucky.
And anyway, I think it’s all moot. Trump will be so obviously sunk in dementia by 2028, if he’s still alive, that even his own supporters won’t be able to deny it.
We need to work on dealing with the disaster before us of course. But I am interested in discussing what happens when Trump is no longer capable of wielding power, whether through death, dementia or term limits.
If Trump dies in office, his successor that day would be — a Marine Corps veteran and former Senator, with a law degree from Yale, who’s been sitting in on Cabinet meetings as the Vice-President, right? Isn’t that the usual amount of education or training that successors hereabouts get?
Since I keep trying the approach of comparing Trump to international strongmen, I of course like to see others doing it.
The Trump Organization has two executive vice presidents, Eric and Donald Jr. I don’t see this showing lack of succession planning. It’s not like DJT can just hand each of them a governorship. And it is normal for there to be more than one successor candidate. Kim Jun Un is likely to vacillate between his sister (current apparent favorite) and one of his children.
While there is a lot of violence in the world, it is an extremely hard thing to predict. IMHO most predictions of violence do not come true, especially if we are talking about violence that would not occur for four years..
But if you are mostly just predicting that Vance would not dare renege on an agreement to step down, I agree.
This. JD Mini-Me has no deeply held beliefs of his own. He’s an empty vessel who fills himself with whatever beliefs his daddy figure of the moment finds most pleasing.
IMO, if Agent Orange dies before November of 2028, he won’t be able to find his own ass with both hands and will have to cast around for a new daddy to tell him what he believes now.
I don’t picture him becoming President in the next election, but if that happens and Agent Orange is still alive, that’s where his marching orders will be coming from.
I work with a woman who told me that neither candidate deserved to be running, and she vote for trump becausevshe lurvess jd. Yep, she didn’t say jd vance or vance, she said jd. I guarantee you she really has no idea about any of it, politics, corruption, etc. except what people on fb tell her.
After telling me this she waxed phylsophical about how she and I see things differently we can still be friends. 
Only 'cause we’re at work and I really can’t speak my mind. And seriously she’s sort of dumb but opinionated. She does have a good heart which makes this both confusing and frustrating.
So who’s currently the Gaetz’s keeper?
I’m not so sure about that. I am having a hard time figuring Vance out. He seems like a fundamentally weak and stupid man, but weak and stupid men don’t get to where he got in life. He wasn’t handed his position the way Trump was.
I suspect that Vance would never make an agreement to step down in the first place, but he might allow others to think he did. When it comes time to do it, he would as likely as not just tell everyone to pound sand, he’s president now.
So what happens then?
He’d be just as likely to have Trump sent to El Salvador, IMO.
The Gaetz’s latch is broken - he’s swinging in the wind.
More likely to St. Elizabeth’s.
A number of his high-profile nominees haven’t actually made it in; like Gaetz, either they withdrew, or Trump withdrew them. None were actually rejected by the Senate in a vote.
In addition to Gaetz, the list includes (source):
- Elise Stefanik (was nominated to be representative to the UN)
- Chad Chronister (DEA administrator)
- Dave Weldon (CDC director)
- Kathleen Sgemma (BLM director)
- Greg Autrey (NASA CFO)
- Leo Bozell (CEO of U.S. Agency for Global Media)
(MAGA)The government shouldn’t be involved with Black Lives Matter anyway!(/MAGA)
Much as I love nitpicks, I have to take exception to most of this list.
- Stefanik would certainly have been confirmed if every vote in the House weren’t so crucial that Trump stopped his own nomination.
- Chronister withdraw before the inauguration.
- Sgamma [note spelling] was junked because they found emails criticizing Trump.
- Autrey was nominated, and I see nothing to confirm that he is not still the nominee.
- Bozell’s nomination was withdrawn because Trump eliminated the agency. He is now the nominee to be the Ambassador to South Africa.
Only Weldon was withdrawn because he couldn’t get the votes, same as Gaetz. Pretty miserable evidence for the courage of the Senate. I will concede, though, that makes two examples, not just one.