Not sure why you think they are dangerous words. I wouldn’t advocate not fighting for his defeat if by some fluke he does end up as the GOP nominee in 2024. I just find him to be lacking charisma or having the ability to fire up DJT’s fan base. Ron DeSantis on the other hand scares me.
By “dangerous,” I just meant that there was a time we were saying that about trumpy, “no way can he get the GOP nomination-- and if he does, no way can he get elected.”
You’re right about lacking DJT’s <gag> charisma, for sure. But the unthinkable isn’t unthinkable any more.
Yeah, I remember looking a the Brexit vote in the UK in June and shaking my head at how so much of the electorate had been bamboozled.
Then we had our election that November…
Trump didn’t get himself elected. The Republicans got Trump elected. They set up their nomination system as a means of channeling stupid people - and Trump showed that he was quicker to race to the bottom that candidates like Cruz and Rubio and Bush. And once Trump got nominated, the Republicans had set up a system to control elections and carry their nominee past the finish line.
People who are still worried about Trump are missing who the real danger is. We shouldn’t be scared of Trump. We should be scared of the Republicans would got somebody like Trump elected.
Remember 2000? When the people elected Gore but five Republicans on the Supreme Court decided to appoint Bush President? That had nothing to do with Trump.
Politics these days: It ain’t thinkable until it’s thinkable. And even when it’s thinkable, it still ain’t thinkable. And even when it happens, it still ain’t thinkable.
Especially that last one.
In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, “Who’d a thunk it?”
I think now he has no interest in running, since he didn’t even like having the job and his precious ego can’t take a loss. But he will tease the idea relentlessly in order to fleece his flock as long as he can.
I agree. I don’t think he will run – too much effort. Much less work to sit on the throne and let people crawl to him and kiss his… um, feet. He’s like the Ex-president D/emeritus or the Dowager Emperor.
This.
If Trump dies tomorrow, the republicans will still be a threat to American democracy. Maybe even a greater one, as with Trump out of the way, someone “smarter” and more dangerous may well ride his popular support while avoiding most of his disfavorables.
And every time someone here says this I automatically think of Ron DeSantis.
I’ve said that I think that the next populist demagogue will be from law enforcement. Think someone like Arpaio.
I’m keeping an eye on this guy.
I would not be overly surprised to see him run for office in 2024.
I’m kind of puzzled by the view that Trump won’t run again in 2024 because it would be “too much work.” Trump himself showed that campaigning for President (and indeed serving as President) is only as much work as he wants it to be. If he runs, the Republican party will make him their candidate by acclamation. He’s not going to be trudging through New Hampshire snow or pressing the flesh at Iowa county fairs. The entire party will fall in line behind him immediately, and there will be plenty of other people to do the work of a Presidential campaign. All he’ll need to do is the stuff that he loves – show up at rallies, say provocative things, make a spectacle of himself. Twitter has said his ban is permanent, but we’ll see if that holds up once he’s the nominee and Republicans are threatening to gut the company if they don’t reinstate him.
At this point, I’d give 75/25 odds that he runs. And the 25 takes into consideration that he could die or have serious health problems. I just don’t see why he wouldn’t. His previous campaigns have been the greatest grift of this career. Campaigning clearly energizes him. And he cannot abide that some people think he is a “loser” after last year, and for his own ego will need to wipe clean the stain of the 2020 election by storming back into the White House.
I didn’t mean that campaigning would be too much work. I meant that even the minimal amount of actual presidentin’ he did would be too much work if he (God forbid a thousand times) got re-elected. There were some things even he couldn’t get out of. He had to go places, sometimes even foreign countries, show up at the Oval office occasionally, talk to people who weren’t related to him, make decisions (or not make them) and then listen to criticism from people afterwards, no matter what he did. As former president, he still gets all the worship with none of the annoying stuff. For him there is no downside to being ex-president. Compared to that, being president again could be a real headache.
I wouldn’t underestimate how much a career criminal craves having the United States Department of Justice provide cover for his misdeeds. Nor how much he craves the constitutional power that comes with the office to destroy the careers and lives of those who oppose him. Neither power may be absolute but as president it’s certainly closer to it than a popular former president gets and even being a king maker isn’t as attractive as being the Big Kahuna.
Campaigning won’t be a deterrent either. He campaigned throughout his term. And this time around his acolytes in red state legislatures have rid him of those pesky rules followers and are prepared to toss whatever number of opposition votes as necessary. Winning new voters? That’s for chumps.
Only time will tell, obviously. I agree with you that Trump initially felt obligated to do things he didn’t want to do during his Presidency, but over the course of it he figured out he could just slough off almost all the boring work to underlings and only do the splashy parts.
Ultimately, though, I think what will drive Trump to run is that he will not be able to abide another person’s name being on the ticket as the Republican nominee. No matter how slavishly say Ron DeSantis kisses his ass, praises him in all his speeches, invites him to speak at his rallies, etc., it will be DeSantis’ name on the bumper stickers, yard signs, buttons, t-shirts, and being chanted by crowds of Republicans. That another person could slide right in and lead his movement is unthinkable to Trump. Maybe if it was another Trump, but there’s little indication yet that Don Jr. or Ivanka are going to pick up the reins.
Well, then, cue a Trumpian attack on the Governor of Florida in four… three… two…
The first few pebbles tumbling before the avalanche?
Boy howdy, don’t it just?
Well, they can’t be bothered with actually DOING anything for the country. Might as well start campaigning… and raising money.
He gets all that worship now. But two years is a lot of time and a not insignificant number of his current adoring audience are there because he’s “their president”. Once the GOP start actually lining up their next candidate the Trump base are going to go “WTF!? Trump for life!” and Trump’s going to start thinking they might see him as a coward for not running. Unless everyone really go insane and “The next president will just reinstate Trump and lock president Kamala up!” becomes their new Q, but I think even with Trump backing that won’t get much traction.