What will the Republicans do if Trump implodes before the convention?

Politics & Elections
21

Oh I think it is likely that he will remain the candidate even after more meltdowns, the power of bullshit politics is strong in the Republican party and they will tell us that Trump is being supported even if the turd they are polishing is melting ***and the leaders and right wing press knows it.

Fortunately, bullshit politics are not very effective at convincing more than half the voters in recent presidential contests and so far it looks that way too now. But all the ones that know about what Trump really is should not be complacent and should make efforts to ensure that Trump remains behind.

22

I don’t get this attitude. Whatever his actual IQ or psychiatric diagnosis, the man is a successful businessman; his career has suffered various setbacks from which he has come back. He’s not stupid or severely delusional.

I still think the whole thing is a publicity prank that went too far, and he’s hoping to lose, but by a small margin.

23

What Voyager says - he won’t withdraw pretty much no matter what. The purpose of his campaign is to get attention for himself. As long as he gets attention, he will continue.

Yes, it’s a spectacle and I don’t think he will be elected. But “success” for Trump means people are paying attention. So it has already “succeeded” for Trump.

Nightmare scenario: some deranged leftist, or Muslim, or illegal immigrant, shoots and wounds him, and Hillary is recorded in an off-guard moment saying “Good - that shooter should get a medal”, and Trump wins on the sympathy vote.

I don’t think he will win. I didn’t think he would get the nomination. I don’t think, if he is elected, that it will be the end of the republic.

Dear God, at least let me get two out of three.

Regards,
Shodan

24

There’s really nothing they can do. If they let the process play out, Trump gets the nomination. If they change the rules to pull the football away before he kicks it, they lose at least a third of their base. Either way, they’re big-red-capital-Superman-“S” screwed.

25

He might come up with something, but I take your point. And I definitely don’t think he’ll withdraw. He might get forced out somehow, or at least have the RNC withdraw all support, if he takes it beyond a certain point.

But I kind of hope he stays just about at the level he is now. Every few days saying something that gives Republicans heartburn, but not so much that they are quite willing to abandon the sinking ship. It is lots of fun watching them twist in the wind.

For a recent example of such twisting: one of the standard-issue features of a presidential campaigns is having “surrogates”–high profile elected officials from your party–go on the Sunday shows to talk you up and attack your opponent. Senator Bob Corker, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, came this past Sunday to “ABC This Week” eager to do the latter–talk shit about Hillary Clinton–but found himself in a cringe-inducingly awkward position whenever host George Stephanopoulos pressed him to, you know, actually talk about *his *party’s presumptive nominee, Donald Drumpf.

Bringing *maturity *back to foreign policy! Drumpf! Okaaayyyy… :dubious:

26

I’m having trouble understanding what you’re trying to say here. I have never supported a Democratic candidate who I thought would be worse for the country than his or her opponent. Who would do that? Do you really think that little of your fellow Americans?

27

"CORKER: … I thought this interview was going to be more about the foreign policy arena…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, our relations with Mexico is foreign policy.

CORKER: Okay."

Sorry, but that was just damned funny.

28

I almost felt bad for Corker. Having seen Veep, I picture him going back to the green room and unleashing a blue streak of profanity toward his staff for putting him in that impossible position!

29

What’s the point of partisan bomb-throwing like this in unrelated threads?

30

I’ve thought from the beginning of Trump’s campaign that he would have to give a speech something like this for the Republicans to realize what a disaster they have on their hands.

But, maybe not. I’d still like to see Trump say something like it, though.

31

This is hilarious. Republicans have been trying to sabotage the economy for 7 years running just to try to make Obama look bad. The Senate Republican leader stated publicly that his number one goal was not any policy, but rather to make Obama a one term president. That’s how you put party before country.

Back to the question at hand- it is clear that Republicans are having buyer’s remorse. Can they change the rules to nominate someone else? Sure, but do they have the votes? Even as miserable a job as Trump has done in selecting actual delegates, I can’t see them scuttling Trump at the last minute. Think of all the Trumpians that would sit on their hands in November. These supporters will be absolutely beside themselves if their idol is the victim of a coup.

His campaign is like a slow motion wreck. It is inevitable that he’ll make a fuckup so bad that even lapdogs like Christie and Carson will scramble for the lifeboat.

32

The Republicans’ current strategy is clearly in “he may be that crazy bigoted uncle who spews uncontrollable profanity at the Thanksgiving dinner table, but he’s family” mode. So we see an ongoing succession of party bigwigs distancing themselves from the latest ludicrous pronouncement from Uncle Donald while at the same time declaring that of course they are still supporting his run for the White House.

At this point I think there’s pretty much nothing Trump could say that would deter his followers short of the “dead girl/live boy” scenario (and frankly I’m not even sure about the “dead girl” part). He may genuinely have to get caught redhanded [sic] on camera buggering a toddler before the GOP decides that enough is enough. This is where American politics is at.

(Also: the claim that the Democrats are the ones putting party ahead of country – after all those Republicans who previously openly condemned Trump as unfit, incompetent, megalomaniacal, immoral and outright insane suddenly decided to support him – is downright hilarious. I haven’t seen that much projection outside an IMAX theatre.)

33

I think that they’d desperately try to pull another name out of the hat.

Then I think they’d climb all over themselves blaming Obama, Terrorists from Bengazi (looking for Dr Emmett Brown and a 1984 DeLorean), Bernie Sanders supporters, and maybe even a Vince Foster led Zombie Apocalypse.

The Party of Personal Responsibility will take NO responsibility… as usual.

(…and behind the scenes they’ll do a really slow burn about All That Money that they pissed away… for NOTHING…)

Where’s that damn Parimutuel betting window when you need it…? When’s Post time…? :smiley:

34

Well, he could actually shoot and kill someone on 5th Avenue in broad daylight.

35

What if he gets arrested or indicted?

36

Right. He’s not going to “implode,” but if he can see that the polls predict Clinton winning by an inevitable landslide, it has always seemed much more likely to me that he would find some excuse to pull out before actually suffering a humiliating defeat.

He’s done this before on various smaller points. When things don’t go his way, he says everything is rigged by “the establishment,” in order to save face. Or he blames it on the “unfair” media.

37

He pays no heed to anyone or anything other than himself. What makes you think he looks at or believes polls?

38

Huh.

You know, Trump has a long history of – publicity-seeking? Maybe self-promotion? Whatever you want to call it. But this last year, it’s been huge even for him.

So let’s say what Vegas says will happen will happen: Clinton becomes the next President of these United States.

Are we in for four years of Trump saying – whenever anything even arguably goes wrong – “This would not have happened on my watch. Would not have happened, okay? If not for the crooked system, and by the way I earned millions more votes than she did, and if not for the crooked system, I would have stopped this from happening. You know, my lawyers told me that I had a strong case, a very strong case, I could have been president if we’d taken it to court, and I still might, if this sort of incompetence continues, because I’d be ten times, twenty times more competent than she is, she’s a liar and a criminal and she can’t even do the job, which I think is very sad, and why isn’t she behind bars yet?”

(Yes, even if he didn’t earn millions more votes than she did; that’s kind of my point. Every time there’s a high-profile crime: “It’s because there’s no WALL! I would’ve built a wall, I would’ve made Mexico pay for it, and all of these deaths are on her hands, because she’s not doing what anyone with an OUNCE OF SENSE would’ve done!” Will he announce that without fail each time, regardless of whether anyone involved (a) was here illegally; or, y’know, (b) died?)

39

I tend to doubt it. When the election is over, he goes back to his business and he won’t have a soap box to stand on any longer. Republicans won’t be giving him the time of day since he will have steered their ship squarely into the reef. Nobody is going to care about his political views and his career as a reality star will be over. He’ll retire in relative obscurity and in maybe twenty years we’ll hear that he died and say “oh yeah, I remember that asshole”.

40

Do you have any evidence that Mr. Trump is currently under any criminal investigation?