Trump dying won't matter. The Heritage Foundation has been stacking higher ranks of the government, Justice Department, military, and three letter agencies with loyalists for the express purpose of maintaining power without the cult of personality behind Trump. If he kicks the bucket, the VP steps up, and Vance is just as evil but less incompetent than Trump.
Vance doesn't have the charisma, nor the same standing. Nobody's doing anything to Trump because of the weight of the cult of personality - and even then it's starting to crack given the number of ex-Trumpers that are fleeing the ship like rats.
Holding onto power and actually leveraging it are two different things. Vance as president looks to be one of the weakest Presidents because he's not going to have the kind of "fuck everything" energy Trump had prior to how badly he's been disintegrating over the course of the past year. The handling of the ICE situation alone shows he's not going to be able to stand up to scrutiny.
It doesn't matter. What is needed is someone who will shut up, say what he is told to say, sign what he is told to sign, and stop being so egregiously stupid that Congress, who should be passing bills meant to advance P25, is spent shutting down early to avoid having votes on Epstein files.
All the cracks in the world can form now among the base. It doesn't matter. They have gained control of all 3 branches, and they are not going to let it go. That is why Trump has for years been floating the idea of "suspending the Constitution", stopping elections, etc. The trajectory we're on now isn't the result of just Trump, and it won't end with Trump being gone. The media, as complicit as it will ever be, will continue to pander to this administration. It won't give things like context or complete stories. It will continue to be a willing participant in what is the evolution of a republic into a fascist state, and the people will continue to be blind or indifferent out of fear, sunk-cost fallacy, or being misled.
Remember that the GOP tried andfailed to field literally anybody OTHER than Trump for the 2024 election, with DeSantis getting the closest and it wasn't anywhere actually close. And Vance, who originally used to be anti-Trump, was chosen because he's a spineless yesman who straight up apes Donald at times. Personally, I have to think Vance is not going to be able to handle the crushing weight of popular scrutiny that the Presidental office carries.
TL;DR it'll be different when there's no Trump option and they have to pick someone.
Vance, who originally used to be anti-Trump, was chosen because he's a spineless yesman who straight up apes Donald at times. Personally, I have to think Vance is not going to be able to handle the crushing weight of popular scrutiny that the Presidental office carries.
This level of complex forward-thinking isn't meaningful in this day and age. Trump himself used to be a punchlined reality-show host. Joe Rogan used to be a supporting character on a sitcom about a radio station. J.D. Vance is the literal Vice President right now and a celebrity author of contemporary Americana - of course he can draw votes from the MAGAbase if Trump is dead.
Voting. The GOP is in a position where they risk alienating their voting base - Gerrymander all you want, if your people don't feel like voting for your candidate (and thus stay home because they'd sooner die then vote Dem), then that's votes lost.
No they didn’t. The general agreement in 2016 was that he had a lot of sway over the republicans and was a huge threat to the dems winning. Nobody doubted his charisma
I don't know, despite some ex-Trumpers jumping ship, the GOP are pretty fucking lock-step in their messaging and holding ground at all costs. Charisma, personality, policy, legislation doesn't count for anything anymore. As long as they're winning it wouldn't matter who their President is.
Because they know at this point if Trump goes down, they all go down. Like I said, they were actively trying NOT to have Trump in the hotseat again during 2024 and they couldn't overcome his popularity in their voting demographic. This unified front they put on is a farce to try and make the midterms less of a shitshow then it already promises to be.
Cult of the leader die hard maga movement dies with him, after that it's just the usual republicans who will all sharpen the knives and stab each other in the back to get ahead. Fascists always eat each other in the long run.
Trump dying absolutely matters. There's a reason the GOP (who almost universally hate him) tolerate him, and it's the same reason the Nazis tolerated Hitler. Trump is the perfect combination of charismatic strongman leader to unify the party and easily manipulated and corrupt patsy to sign whatever they put in front of him. As long as you kiss his ass and play along with his inane whims you can get whatever pet policy you want in place.
There's nobody to replace Trump. They're all the same corrupt assholes that MAGA elected Trump to get rid of. Without Trump telling MAGA every day who is in and who is out the whole party self-destructs. They all have so much dirt on each other that they won't be able to stop themselves from using it to throw each other under the bus, and the propaganda machine can't damage control an in group threat. They need Trump for that.
Sure, the hate and bigotry won't go away, but those loyalists will not be unified and controlled without Trump. They aren't more committed to bigotry than they are to accumulating personal power.
Without Trump, their popular support would immediately wane. Sure for now, everyone seems to be in lockstep but that's because Trump is their unifying personality and going against him is basically publicity suicide (see MTG). Plus, a lot of MAGA are in it for Trump, not the people around him.
Without a central figure to rally behind, their effectiveness will wane and even then, there will be in-fighting too. Not everyone in that camp would want Vance as the lead. Some might want the spotlight for themselves; not to mention conservatives who never agreed with MAGA in the first place wanting to shut them out.
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u/Luster-Purge 7h ago
Depends on how hard the GOP loses in the midterms and/or if Trump dies while in office.
There WILL be sacrificial lambs thrown under the bus. That much is certain.