Ugh… even if he couldn’t win the presidential nomination, he might still make it to vice-presidential nomination. This would leave the president to concentrate on domestic policy, while Trump uses his awesome negotiating skills to extract concessions from other countries. I hate myself for typing that.
I’m sure Trump would love to send out some tweets about what a loser Ricky Martin is.
For the main article, I think the no-plan scenario is far more likely than the planned-run-as-independent scenario. I frankly don’t think Trump is smart enough to plan ahead.
But I also think people dramatically underestimate Trump’s potential in the nomination race, and maybe even his potential as a presidential candidate. If it comes down to Trump vs. Clinton, it will literally just be a race between whether republicans hate Clinton more than democrats hate Trump. I think the republicans are probably better at the hate game.
Plus, it feels like these days honesty is getting a lot of support and attention, even if your honest beliefs are odious.
I like Sanders’ odds against Trump much better than I like Clinton’s, but I think people really underestimate just how normalizing A/B choices are in politics. When there are only two choices, I think that one tends to become the candidate for one side of the mean and the other the candidate for the other side of the mean. The public reinvents the candidates to be heads and tails. With 57% voter turnout and the electoral college system, you could win the presidency with about 28% of Americans holding their noses to vote for you. You know “You can fool some of the people all of the time?” 28% is really within “some.”
That’s a silly implication and a fairly elitist one at that. Why not assume he’s trying to win?
He’d be a disaster as Pres, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be or that he doesn’t want to be.
I agree. Even if we have good mathematical models that tell us that he will not be president is an entirely separate issue from whether or not he thinks he can become president. I think this is recognized in the article. I mean, Mitt Romney thought he could become president, and that was extremely far-fetched to those of us paying attention to reality.
But I do think that writing off Trump completely is making an assumption about the future adequately resembling the past that just isn’t warranted with Trump on the ballot. Even ignoring the fact that political pundits are right as often as coin flips (the best ones, anyway), I don’t think taking analysis that has worked in the past and trying to apply it to Trump is going to be very reliable.
In country where Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and famous actor Ronald Regan have all experienced electoral success, it’s not completely mad to think that being well known might be enough to give you a pretty solid shot.
I don’t think Trump would be Trump if he second guessed himself a lot. To the extent that he has thought about it at all, I’m sure he believes he has at least as good a shot at the presidency as anybody else. At some point, he decided he could win the presidency. Now he’s fully committed to it - he’s pouring his resources into this, at the expense of his other businesses. I don’t think he has a contingency plan
Pish. HST already alerted us to the things this drug can do…
Does he really have such awesome skills? I doubt anyone would ask him to be VP; the others clearly want to be rid of him completely. I think he’d be very bad in office, not just because his policies, as much as anyone can make out, would be terrible, but he just doesn’t play well with others. Other Republicans don’t trust him and the Democrats loathe him; where would his base in Washington be?
Don’t Feed The Donald.
I have to go with Sam Seder’s idea that 1. He doesn’t want to be bothered to do the actual work of being President. It would be too much of a life and management style hit for him and 2. He would very much like to be the one that essentially gets to personally pick the republican candidate, which he might be very well situated to do.
He’d love to say “ya, I put him in office single handedly.”
Sorry, some sarcasm. His fans think he has awesome skills; he would be a horrible VP for all the reasons you point out Offering him the VP position could keep him from running as an independent, while allowing his ego to publicly support another candidate. And he’ll still bring in the votes from his fanbase.
But, just imagine how classy the White House would be after he renovates.
What odds can I get on a President Trump impeachment/resignation right now?
There was an ep of The Apprentice they filmed in Trump’s flat.
Trump has the style sense of Liberace, if Liberace didn’t know about pianos and candelabras. “Gaudy” doesn’t do it justice.
ETA: I take it back, I don’t think he has any style sense at all. He has people for that.
Coming soon: The Trump White House.
Rooms: $5,000/night
Address: 1600 Pennsylvania Trump Ave., Washington Trumpington, DC DT
I like to think that “DT” doesn’t stand for “District of Trump” but just stands for “Donald Trump” I mean, why not.
Delirium tremens.
I love that the joke baby carriage that Ellen gave him, looks right at home…
He is only running for the publicity, which is being subsidized by donors now. He gets even greater name recognition and coverage for little to no cost to himself. Truly stretching the boundaries of “no publicity is bad publicity”.
