Long-time readers of our blog know that it grew out of a correspondence that Laska, Mr. Jones, and I shared back in February when we were shocked and panicked by Mr. Trump’s electoral success and appalled at the apparent collapse of the GOP at the presidential level. Given that, it’s surprising we haven’t posted about Trump yet. So, I’ll go ahead and break the ice.
I think we were all consumed with terror at the prospect of President Trump back in February and early March. But, no one can maintain that level of emotional anxiety forever. And, then Mr. Trump lost a string of primaries and it looked like he might be a spent force. And, we are all just tired of him and hoped he would go away. But, his big win in New York changed all that. And if he wins PA, CT, Delaware and Rhode Island on Tuesday, he’s more than back in the saddle.
He’s going to win the GOP nomination. And then he has a 50-50 chance of beating Hillary. I know, polls show her beating him in places like Utah and Mississippi. But, she’s a terrible campaigner, and he’s a showman, and so anything can happen.
If he wins, I think, one of two things are likely. The first is some type of military coup d’état, with Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi holding a press conference and announcing a Biden-Romney interim government. Two, respected party elders who can run the government until new elections are held.
The second, more likely, option is that he takes office and immediately provides some pretext for the House to move articles of impeachment. And then the mother and father of all show trials in the senate.
I realize how canned-foods-stacked-in-my-basement crazy these ideas of military coups, interim governments, and show trials sound. But, ask yourself. If one year ago, I had said that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee for President of the United States, would I have sounded any less crazy?
In at The End of The World 
My main thing at the beginning of the correspondence that led to this blog was being freaked by Sanders’s success–not because I’m such a party guy or big fan of the established processes, but because I envisioned the Democratic Party tearing itself down, characteristically, just at the exact moment when the GOP seemed to be in disarray, and eight more years of fending off the worst might have looked achievable. How things have changed. I still wasn’t taking Trump seriously then. And really I don’t now. If he’s the nominee — and I guess unless the coup you envision occurs at the GOP convention, he will be — the party will have reaped what it’s been sowing since ’64. If he defeats the Democratic nominee, there’s a whole other level of freakout to come, which i can’t yet face, in which I’ll wish a military coup sounded more realistic than it does.
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For my part, I feel like I need another week before I can talk about Trump. I don’t take him seriously as a general election candidate. I don’ think he has the mind, organization, or temperament to move beyond ratings rallies and into the hard work of endorsements, winning over unions, churches, interest groups. Also, we need to see what form his transition will take. I think he starts to tank the minute he softens on immigration, starts trying to compliment people he has railed against, and fumbles through another question. He may already be tanking, but the NYC results hide it.
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More to the point of this post, why aren’t you circulating a pilot treatment at Netflix? House of Cards is running out of steam and they need a new plausible scary political drama.
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Oh, you may well laugh, my dear Laska, but remember me when the tanks show up in Arlington and Foggy Bottom on “routine training missions” and Mr Trump is arguing in his own defense in the well of the senate. You are right that Trump doesn’t have the mind or inclination to win over interest groups or get endorsements or any of the hard, grinding work we normally associate with politics. But, he doesn’t have to. He’s winning without any of it. No Chamber of Commerce dinners. No fireman’s union endorsements or eating fried Snickers bars at state fairs and pretending to enjoy it.
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I was so so naive.
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