I think he will, but there might be a real primary challenge.
This is a sensitive question. Remember rule #1.
Man I understand sensitivity, but getting preemptively mad that someone might mention that in 4 years a really old guy could die of old age seems weird to me.
Just a preemptive warning. I’ve seen political threads get pretty heated. ;)
How would that even be against the rules? Pointing out an old guy might die is the epitome of “no shit Sherlock” posting.
I doubt it. While some people think he’ll be dead by then, I’m inclined to suspect not. However given his observed mental decline, I suspect that he’ll be even less coherent 4 years from now. He’s currently 78, and would therefore be 82 by then (birthday June 14th 1946). He’s already got a number of age-related medical issues, such as needing to wear adult diapers and said mental decline.
Behind the scenes is be surprised if he didn’t have some cardiac problems, even minor ones, and thus was on something for them, such as blood thinners or cholesterol meds. I don’t know if it’s been verified that he’s on Ozempic, but he sure has lost a lot of weight lately and I don’t think it’s from exercising.
I do expect that he’s never going to shut up though. If, hopefully, he loses this election, he’s not going to just evaporate. People are still going to give a damn about what his opinion is and who he endorses, especially his cult of followers, but also the less overtly extreme conservatives.
As a general rule, cults built around a singular person, AKA cults of personality, tend to crumble into dust and fade into history once that personality is gone. However, some cults outlive that person because someone else is there to pick up the slack and reform things just enough to make a going concern of the cult. That’s how Christianity started, that’s how Protestantism started, and if you look into it, just about every other major, lasting “religion” that had branched off of the Christianity family tree. It also goes for political, cultural, and social movements, which can be cult-like without the religious aspect being an absolute requirement, although ir can be very strongly intertwined. I don’t know where the Cult of Trump will go once old age finally catches up to him, I think it’s likely that it’ll be reabsorbed into christo-facism because the two feed off of each other pretty strongly.
Martin Luther didn’t have a cult of personality, he more had grievances, legitimate and otherwise. I think one of the best examples though is L. Ron Hubbard and David Miscavige.
I think the big thing here is it’s both a cult of personality and an outlet for the cultic milleau that was brewing before it found him. The satanic panic found new life in Qanon. But also I don’t think that that portion alone is powerful enough to outlive him
Even though I’d like him to drop off the face of the Earth, I kinda hope he does run. He’ll be even less coherent. His insane rambling will be worse. He’ll have to run as an independent, because Republicans won’t bet on a losing horse again - and he definitely would lose. It’ll be a major public humiliation, and he deserves as many of those as possible.
Oi independent and split vote is a possibility.
Just more reason to laugh!
I’m leaning towards “no”. His fragile ego will have taken two nasty blows in a row. Plus in four years he’ll be even older and more fragile, and it’s already pretty bad.
If I’m right, I’m sure he’ll endorse some other maga-clown instead.
I think he’s really good at compartmentalization and it wouldn’t surprise me if deep down he does think the election was stolen from him. I also don’t think he’ll be satisfied being on the political sidelines so he’ll run as long as he’s able.
Donny Jr hoping for daddy’s approval.
He might have his endorsement, but never his approval.
Jesus Christ, that’s brutal.
Like you’re stabbing a corpse at this point good sir.
I don’t think he’ll endorse anyone except maybe for pay. And I don’t think anyone will want his endorsement. Most of his endorsed primary candidates failed (as I recall, valid to double check that). It may not be a mark of death, but it doesn’t look like it helps.
I can’t be arsed checking/verifying your claim about the endorsement failure, but I do remember something similar, so it’s probably right.
Considering how many failed businesses he has under his name, I doubt failure is enough to hurt his ego. He’ll just make something up so he can pretend he’s still a success. Like how he claims he won the last election despite it being yet another failure to add to the pile.
Narcissists don’t know how to recognize their own failures
Yeah, while the cluster b two axis graph of opinion of self and opinion of others is useful it’s important to remember that narcissism is often rejection of acknowledgment of personal flaws. They don’t actually like themselves
I like your funny words magic man
He will continue running until he wins or dies.
I feel like he would continue trying even after his turn limit if he won
No cap 50/50 odds he tries a postmortem run. Can’t put odds on whether it’ll be in spirit or “Weekend at Bernie’s”-style.
In other words, until he dies.
I sure hope that he won’t win
Unfortunately for us the worst people live the longest. Just look at henry kissinger
I think there’s a bit of bias there. History’s worst are considered as such because they died “a bad person,” which is of note to us, whereas most of humanity is good or at least complex.
Not only is news more sellable when its negative, but our books record the moments of tragedy more than peace, even the human genome favors “remembering” the negative in order to survive.
Yes.
His ability to make a career out of running for president is too lucrative to give up, sadly.
I think it’s unlikely hell be alive in 2028. The problem is the people that support him now, will be. They’ll try again and again to get the things they want passed. If it’s not now, they’re patient enough to wait. They won’t stop unless they’re forced by judicial action and these people are behind bars. It’s not trump that’s the biggest issue. It’s the evil people behind him.
Either he’ll run and keep ripping the Republican party to shreds, or he’ll drop dead. Either way, it’s a win.
You’d think it would be a win, but honestly Trump is a clown. More “centrists” who detest Trump might rally around someone like DeSantis, that’s what I’m afraid of.
Desantis has the charisma of a wet napkin though, he was basically laughed out of the last Republican Primary for being weird and off-putting
He’ll be in prison or dead.
He’ll be too old.
He’s too old now.
Absolutely. The GOP is stuck with him until he dies…and his dad lived to be 93.
Well he doesn’t do anything he doesn’t have to and since you only have so much energy or something the people who exercise or some shit will die earlier because they used themselves up.
A not verbatim speech from trump about exorcize and why he doesn’t.
Ah, but did he share the same affection for the Big Mac?
I would hope he would fade away. But between the need for grifted money and ego I doubt he will stop until he physically can’t any more.
You think that thing, held together by duct tape and bobby pins, is living to 2028?
The problem is not Trump. The problem is the people who vote for him
The members of a personality cult are victims of its leader. The problem is Trump.
No. They are susceptible to be influenced and manipulated by populist ideas. If it isn’t Trump someone else will do the same with them.
By that argument, a con man’s victims are to blame for having been fooled.
true, but i think the comment aims more at “it doesn’t have to be this specific con man, they’d fall for other con men too just the same way”
My point is that anyone can be conned by the right con man. Our status as Trump opposers does not render us immune to malicious deceit.
I don’t mean to excuse the trumpists entirely. I’m just pointing out that without Trump to focus them, they don’t become radicalized, and never become a problem.
Trump voters are the victim of a con, but the con is bigger than Trump. Conservatism in general is a con that needs misinformation networks like talk radio, fox news, facebook groups, etc. Without having been steeped in that bullshit for 40+ years, Trump would never have succeeded. It’s the whole ecosystem that’s doing the radicalization, not just Trump.
I think the counterpoint is that it seems not that common for one and only one con man to milk this voting base. Trump seems to be special in that he has nearly a monopoly, where as others would probably be in stronger competition and stuck splitting the populace.
I’m far more concerned about the rise of Nazism and Monarchism in the USA. Even if we never have a Republican in any governing office again and the country continues to move further and further left, America has a lot of work to do to ensure these forms of tyrrany are never even considered as a viable alternative to Democracy.
The fact that these forms of governance survive in the hearts and minds of people is an indicator of a larger and more complex societal failing that spans the entire history of America. This is not some strange short term flash in the pan of Nazism and Authoritarianism, it is an insidious and vile tradition passed down from generation to generation, and we have only staunched it’s slow cancerous growth by publicly shaming those who voice these views publicly. Obviously this has proven ineffective.
I think a more important question than whether one particularly sad excuse for a sad sack of shit may run for president again, is how do we make sure the Trump dynasty, and all dynasties, fade into obscurity until the last remnants of their legacy is a footnote that indicates we lived in a time period when humans, due to many generations of hoisting up those with the most lust for power into positions of power, nearly destroyed themselves. How do we make that happen?
This is the correct response and concern. Well said.
Facism - and that is what Trumpism ultimately is - has always been fuelled by declining social security and rising social inequality. This provides the matrix for an ideology of us vs. them that is ultimately a distribution battle in a declining economy. Unless the USA (as well as many other nations esp. in Europe) solves this issue sufficiently well for the people at large, I see little hope for Trump or any of his clones to disappear from the political stage. That is also why the right is so eager to frame any initiative that aims to mitigate social precariousness as radical left/communism/socialism.
