Who Will Be The Next POTUS?

Mike Pence followed by some Democrat.

Mike Pence with a possibility of Ivanka Trump. Trump will want a dynasty to follow him and I’m not sure he really considers Pence to be “one of his”.

If that’s possible, Trump could also be dead. I’m not wishing him any harm, but he’s in their age group.

Isn’t this assuming that there will be a next president? We’re only 6 months in, he’s still got plenty of time to change that, be it by ruining the institution of the presidency or ending the world.

My track record on this is poor, and there are just way too many possibilities, but if I was a betting man and the odds were decent I’d say Joe Biden for 2020.

For 2024, my first bet would be Cory Booker.

You’re just trying to jinx them – like how being on a Sports Illustrated cover –> injury. :slight_smile:

It’s more likely than assuming there won’t be a next President. If Nixon couldn’t ruin the institution of the presidency, Trump won’t. We’ve survived worse. We survived the resignation of a vice-president and a president in the same administration and the system worked to bring about a peaceful transition, and the election was held as usual in 1976. Trump is small potatoes compared to Nixon in terms of the damage he could bring to the White House. It won’t prevent elections in 2020 or 2024.

Kirsten Gillibrand

He could start a nuclear war. That would do quite a bit of damage to the White House.

I don’t think there’s any way to guess this, but I’ll throw out, for fun, that the next ELECTED President will be Terry McAuliffe.

I know it sounds vague, but I’m just thinking of people like Elizabeth Warren and Corey Booker who I would rather have in office than a generic white man, but who probably won’t be because of our current political climate. That is, even if a Dem wins, I don’t see Dems running anyone other than a bland, middle of the road, generic white guy to avoid frightening the moderates.

I would take Pence for office in a heartbeat over Donald Trump. Since Trump alternates between doing absolutely nothing and doing terrible things, I not only would rather have anybody else, I would also rather have nobody else.

Or just lose a nuke.

I really hope he runs. He’ll certainly have my vote.

Technically, any president could start a nuclear war. I’m not so pessimistic as to believe that Trump actually will start one.

I’m really not joking about the threat of losing a nuke.

Read that article (post #31) and tell me you don’t think we’re dealing with a higher-than-average risk of a nuclear incident.

As I’ve said before, it depends on what succession law Donald Trump puts in place.

Primogeniture: Donald Trump Jr.
Elective*: probably Ivanka Trump
Ultimogeniture: Barron Trump

  • Only members of Trump dynasty can vote on succession

I can project who wouldn’t win a lot more easily than who will run. Warren’s too far left, and the Bernie Bros would probably hammer her if she pivoted enough to be competitive. Booker seems moderate enough to me, regardless of the color of his skin. It’s not like he was going to get the racist vote anyway.

Biden seems to fit your qualifications the best, but he’s getting up there in age and who knows if he’ll even run? It looks like Dems are as fractured as the pre-election Pubs were supposed to be, and I don’t see any unifying force out there right now (other than anti-Trump, of course, but that clearly isn’t working well enough either).

On a separate note, shout out to addy. Haven’t seen you around in a while, man.

I’ll see you here on January 20, 2021, to remind you of this thread. Seriously, I don’t lose sleep at night worrying about this.

That’s all suboptimal, of course, but I still don’t think losing a nuke will end Democracy or even just the Presidency in the U.S.

I don’t think it will either. I was responding to the claim that

[QUOTE=cochrane]
Trump is small potatoes compared to Nixon in terms of the damage he could bring to the White House.

[/QUOTE]

I was also responding to that quote out of context (posted by another poster) and see now that it was in reference to the idea of Trump ending the Presidency as we know it. So I apologize for the confusion and would like to reiterate that while I believe Trump’s potential for damage is worse than Nixon, and possibly any other President in history, I don’t think it’s likely to end Democracy as we know it.

Me, neither. I’m glad that we can agree on that. Cooler heads and the Constitution would limit any permanent damage that Trump could do. And that’s my point. We faced a crisis in 1972-74 and recovered from it.