# Will Trump go all "Jim Jones"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 12, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463 "2019-04-12T22:42:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/141 "2019-04-16T13:08:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Could he hole himself up in the West Wing with his henchmen, and hold out in a Waco-style siege? Could he incite his Twitter followers into armed revolt? Could he retreat to Mar-a-Lago with his devotees? Perhaps with vats full of Diet Coke…? Could he? Yeah. And monkeys might fly outta my ass. I gotta give it to some of you folks, you have great imaginations. Seriously, you should write for Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/142 "2019-04-16T13:30:53Z")
To answer the OP, by 2025… if he makes it that long… Trump will be too damned old and tired to continue. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/143 "2019-04-16T13:43:12Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > Could he? Yeah. And monkeys might fly outta my ass. I gotta give it to some of you folks, you have great imaginations. Seriously, you should write for Hollywood. Thanks! No-one in the thread is saying that Trump will definitely “go loco”, but, given what we know of him, I personally find it more outlandish that someone would rule out all possibility of him reaching some psychological crisis point, or that he would attempt to incite his followers in some way in the interests of self-protection. Indications that he might are most definitely there. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/144 "2019-04-16T14:33:41Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > Could he? Yeah. And monkeys might fly outta my ass. I gotta give it to some of you folks, you have great imaginations. Seriously, you should write for Hollywood. Hollywood would have rejected the story of his campaign and Presidency. The Asylum wouldn’t have touched it with a ten foot pole. Uwe Boll would have trashed it, and Ed Wood…well, maybe Ed Wood would have taken it on. Nothing that has been suggested in this thread is as crazy as what has already happened. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/145 "2019-04-16T14:40:59Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > But if he’s in office for a 2nd term, I seriously doubt he’d be allowed to stay a third. He wouldn’t \*\*\*want \*\*\*to stay for a 3rd. Most presidents can’t wait to be out the door by the time eight years is up. He would be 78 years by then, thoroughly exhausted and worn out, perhaps just want to spend his remaining years chilling in Mar-a-Lago. The guy has physical and mental limits like anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/146 "2019-04-16T14:43:58Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > I’m guessing he is a single issue voter. What issue would that be? Hillary’s emails? Pissing off liberals? Destroying the moral fabric of the United States? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/147 "2019-04-16T15:35:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Hollywood would have rejected the story of his campaign and Presidency. The Asylum wouldn’t have touched it with a ten foot pole. Uwe Boll would have trashed it, and Ed Wood…well, maybe Ed Wood would have taken it on. > Nothing that has been suggested in this thread is as crazy as what has already happened. Bullshit. There is a constant level of crazy in this country. No matter who is sittting POTUS or running for the office, there is crazy. It doesn’t help that the wingnuts from both parties have spun wild tales of the opposition POTUS refusing to step down at least since the Nixon era. Get a grip on yourself. Trump is an idiot and a buffoon and has been a lousy POTUS, but you are working yourself up mostly, I think, because you enjoy being worked up. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/148 "2019-04-16T16:21:56Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Bullshit. There is a constant level of crazy in this country. No matter who is sittting POTUS or running for the office, there is crazy. It doesn’t help that the wingnuts from both parties have spun wild tales of the opposition POTUS refusing to step down at least since the Nixon era. Get a grip on yourself. Trump is an idiot and a buffoon and has been a lousy POTUS, but you are working yourself up mostly, I think, because you enjoy being worked up. Yes, there is a constant level of crazy, but none of the prior POTUSes have wallowed in it like this one. I also don’t think any of these wacky outcomes will happen, but if I were taking bets I’d put the odds closer to 1000-to-1, as opposed to a billion-to-1 for past administrations. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/149 "2019-04-16T16:25:59Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Bullshit. There is a constant level of crazy in this country. No matter who is sittting POTUS or running for the office, there is crazy. Is this the “Law Of Political Equality” you right-wingers trot out whenever your people go over the top? Do you actually believe there is some sort of natural force that guarantees that if one side is bad, the other side must be equally bad, and that this “fact” excuses said behaviour? That if one of yours fucks it up royally all you have to say is “You are just as bad as we are!” and your saying so makes it true? Your President is a dangerous, self-serving, bigoted, money-grubbing habitual liar who has brought the crazy to a dangerous new level, all your piteous hand-waving notwithstanding. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/150 "2019-04-16T17:31:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Do you actually believe there is some sort of natural force that guarantees that if one side is bad, the other side must be equally bad, . . . Do you want to know what sleazy things Trump has done, is doing, or is about to do? They will be precisely what he _accuses_ others of doing, at the top of his lungs. It’s like clockwork. The idea is that, when he gets exposed, unthinking people will confuse who has done what, and end up saying: “On well, they ALL do it, so it doesn’t matter.” The evidence is right here in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/151 "2019-04-16T19:04:27Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I agree with **begbert2** (I think we agree on this at least) that none of that seems the least bit likely. Nuking someone just because he loses an election seems even less-so. I don’t think there’s any chance that he could hole himself up in the West Wing with his henchmen and hold out in a Waco-style siege - the military, police, and even his own secret service wouldn’t stand for it. He could easily incite his Twitter followers into violence - the fucking terrorist already has! Getting the level of violence to be organized enough to be justified called an “armed revolt” seems vanishingly unlikely though. He _could_ retreat to Mar-a-Lago with his devotees, though, and nobody would stop him. But who would care? Senile old man declares himself president of the universe and shouts that fact at cloud, film at 11. > [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Trump already calls things that might challenge his presidency, such as the Mueller report, “illegal” and an “[attempted coup](https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/10/trump-mueller-probe-attempted-coup-1264714)”, so it’s not unreasonable to surmise that he might say the same at other future times that his presidency may be threatened, such as an election, impeachment or end of his two-term limit. We already know from 2016 that he views elections as “rigged”, anyway. > > Alternative venues to the White House for some final conflagration would be Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. At 58-floors, Trump Tower would be quite a defensible location with commanding views - think the movie _Die Hard_. Mar-a-Lago seems like the more obvious analogue for the Jonestown compound, and the frequency with which Trump visits his “southern White House” suggests he views it as his retreat from the reality of life in Washington. So that would be the place I can most likely see Trump going “Jim Jones”, were he to do so. As I just said to **HD** , Trump has no chance of illegally occupying the white house, but legally occupying his own private properties are another matter. He can hole out in one of them forever and nobody is going to stop him - or even bother trying to. Hell, the government would probably even write off any silverware he shoved into his pockets on the way out. Not worth bothering with. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/152 "2019-04-16T19:31:12Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Is this the “Law Of Political Equality” you right-wingers trot out whenever your people go over the top? Do you actually believe there is some sort of natural force that guarantees that if one side is bad, the other side must be equally bad, and that this “fact” excuses said behaviour? That if one of yours fucks it up royally all you have to say is “You are just as bad as we are!” and your saying so makes it true? Your President is a dangerous, self-serving, bigoted, money-grubbing habitual liar who has brought the crazy to a dangerous new level, all your piteous hand-waving notwithstanding. Not at all. I just have no respect for Chicken Little. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/153 "2019-04-16T19:35:55Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Not at all. I just have no respect for Chicken Little. You’ve been pulling this “Chicken Little” crap since Trump got into politics-when it comes to spinning crap you’re a regular Baghdad Bob, aren’t you? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/154 "2019-04-16T21:53:13Z")
I find the “chicken little” position a pretty lazy and cowardly one. There’s no accounting if you’re wrong because we’ll all have much bigger concerns than digging up an incorrect post from years ago. But if you’re right, you get to be right. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/155 "2019-04-16T22:27:08Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > He wouldn’t \*\*\*want \*\*\*to stay for a 3rd. Most presidents can’t wait to be out the door by the time eight years is up. He would be 78 years by then, thoroughly exhausted and worn out, perhaps just want to spend his remaining years chilling in Mar-a-Lago. The guy has physical and mental limits like anyone else. He would want to have some way of getting an insurance policy against his being prosecuted and convicted in a court of law. He’s not most presidents. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/156 "2019-04-16T22:44:41Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > You’ve been pulling this “Chicken Little” crap since Trump got into politics-when it comes to spinning crap you’re a regular Baghdad Bob, aren’t you? Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/157 "2019-04-16T22:46:47Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I find the “chicken little” position a pretty lazy and cowardly one. There’s no accounting if you’re wrong because we’ll all have much bigger concerns than digging up an incorrect post from years ago. But if you’re right, you get to be right. Oh, please…if you’re wrong, you are exactly the one who should be happy. Or is it that you would rather be right and all the chaos you predict would be worth it? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/158 "2019-04-16T22:50:48Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > He wouldn’t \*\*\*want \*\*\*to stay for a 3rd. Most presidents can’t wait to be out the door by the time eight years is up. He would be 78 years by then, thoroughly exhausted and worn out, perhaps just want to spend his remaining years chilling in Mar-a-Lago. The guy has physical and mental limits like anyone else. In addition to **asahi** ’s point, whether or not Trump wants to continue being president, he doesn’t want to be _kicked out_ of being president. That would be losing, which is something only losers do, and he’s no loser. Now, arguably, stepping down at the end of a second term doesn’t imply a loss. But for Trump to realize and comprehend that he’d have to have at least two functioning brain cells, and I figure the odds of that being the case in six years are right around zero, if he’s even still alive. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/159 "2019-04-16T23:18:23Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > {…} Ed Wood…well, maybe Ed Wood would have taken it on. {…} “Gold plate? What are you talking about, this is a class production . . . angora plate everything!” CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463/160 "2019-04-17T04:08:45Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > He cannot even run for a third term. Hopefully, he won’t even finish his current term. Whether he would leave via handcuffs or a hearse, we’d then get President Pence. Scenario in 2020: Mayor Pete gets the Veep nomination, which IMHO and YMMV is not unlikely, and the Dems win, at which time he and Chaston move into Mike Pence’s current house, at which time Mr. Pence collapses in a dead faint. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-trump-go-all-jim-jones/832463.md?page=9)