General Trump hilarity free-for-all thread

[Bu🤠ns]

Well my whole speculation is that if there's going to be a replacement (as Cram has mentioned about buying a goose for a dollar) that they would begin to trot out the patsy about now. plus a lot of the news seems to have a different ... uh ... flavor. I only mentioned Amash bc I feel like he'd be a contender for the centrist vote--the mirror biden, iow. Romney is there too--but idk.

[Cain]

The thing is, if they wanted a replacement for Trump they could have had one six months ago. Fundamentally, nothing has changed since the impeachment hearings. From that, I can only conclude that the Republican Party is not only comfortable with Trumpism, it will actively accommodate it.

As such, if they were going to replace Trump himself, it would be with someone who could seem like a natural successor, continue his policies and placate his supporters. Tom Cotton for example, or another member of the Trump family even.

[Bu🤠ns]

okay -- cool.  that gives me somethign to think about thanks!

[Cain]

I think it's worth remembering that senior Republicans are very aware how many crazy people support Trump as well. And Trump himself isn't exactly adverse to calling out his enemies. If they're going to remove him, it would have to be in a way where he doesn't feel slighted or maligned, because the moment he does he can call them "deep state traitors" on Twitter and have the mob show up.

[Bu🤠ns]

I wonder if he can physically and mentally continue tbh. He seems to be getting worse and I wonder how much longer they can prop him up. Unless that's total horseshit ofc--although it doesn't seem so. I would think the Republicans would have a contingency plan in place that would take into consideration the crazy supporters. Then the daily beast article about him thinking biden will win. Also the recent ousting of Berman that seemed to fail in a good way.

I guess the SCOTUS opinions on Monday/Tuesday might be the scale tipper wrt the Mazars and Deutche Bank stuff-- I really have no clue at the end of the day but it's fun to speculate ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ETA: i wanted to chuck in this politico article despite any misgivings about cooked geese.

[Junkenstein]

Continuing is the only option, really. It can't be a proper morality tale without a shakespearian descent into madness, murder and suicide. Madness is on track, so I'm expecting pompeos head on a literal pike around September.

[chaotic neutral observer]

The notion of being a "one-term President" is abhorrent to Trump; I think it very unlikely that he would step aside voluntarily.

No, he'll be on the ticket come November, and after the election, he will rage vehemently about how the vote was rigged against him...even if he wins.

[Cain]

The other consideration is that Trump will seek to stay in office for as long as possible, to continue to profit from it and to avoid criminal prosection.

That puts him in an interesting position vis-a-vis the Senate Republicans, because it means so long as they enable Trump's criminality, Trump will look the other way regarding their own crimes, literal or otherwise.

[Nibor the Priest]

I fully expect him to refuse to leave if he loses. He's already setting up a narrative about how the election will be rigged, and he's been dogwhistling like crazy to his gun-toting supporters about how they're going to be his first line of defence against the liberal mob.

Republicans' caution about Trump has never been about his politics or even his personal awfulness, because those values aren't substantially different from much of the Republican party's. They just didn't think they could get away with it. Every day they discover they can get away with a bit more than they thought, and now they're just seeing how far he can take them.

I don't want to be right, but I suspect he's in there till he dies of a stroke that goes untreated for three days because his aides are too scared to check on him.

[Bu🤠ns]

He's out Jan 21st if it's still contested for that long which it won't be. justdon'tlookatbushvgore

[Cramulus]

presuming a clear election result, I'm starting to think that "trump won't leave office willingly" is the left wing version of "obama's gonna take your guns"

[Nibor the Priest]

Well, I hope so. He's already doing his best to ensure the result will be unclear, at least to his own base. I think he'll do it through bureaucratic wrangles and Supreme Court challenges rather than a straight-up coup. It's not that much more than what Bush Jr did.

(And we probably won't keep on saying it after he leaves office, at least.)

[Cain]

That's what I'd suspect, yes. Legally speaking once he's declared the loser he's locked out and I doubt the Secret Service will give zero fucks if he complains.

So he'll have to muddy the water beforehand, relying on disinfo programs, foreign interference and voter suppression to carry the result for him.

[Junkenstein]

Don't forget about the militia crowd. I suspect the cliven bundys of the country will need little encouragement, goaded correctly.

[Doktor Howl]

presuming a clear election result, I'm starting to think that "trump won't leave office willingly" is the left wing version of "obama's gonna take your guns"

What part of Trump's behavior leads you to draw that comparison?