"People come up to me with tears in their eyes and say, 'Sir, what single person could have tanked the global economy and made the U.S. both a pariah and laughingstock? You did it all by yourself sir. You are truly one of a kind...sir.'"
Kind of like when my third ex-wife cooked dinner for me and I said, literally with tears in my eyes, "Honey, I've never had liver quite like this before". She was truly one of a kind. Well, actually more like 5 of a kind, but that's a story for another time.
So what do people think will get rid of him early?
He's old, but Google tells me that the average man of 79 can expect to live to 88-90. (His father had dementia and still lived to 93.)
If Dems win the house, he may be impeached - but it takes 67 senators to convict. That would require Republican votes. What have we seen that makes you think that is possible?
He's nuts, but that isn't new. Is there anything he could do that would actually get the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment? And, even if they do, if he contests it - which he would - it takes 67 senators to confirm he is impaired. Will that really happen?
I honestly hope someone can show me a reason to hope he is out before Jan 2029. He might be sick, but we have no evidence of that. And all the other options require 14-17 Republican senators to defy him. I haven't seen anything that makes me believe that will happen.
I really think people wishing for this is a mistake. We want him impotent, not out. If he goes before end of term, it gives Vance a foothold on the next election. We want a bloodbath in the midterms and an endless stream of judicial losses, but his being out out will enable the continuance of MAGA after we get rid of him.
A quick death is too good for him -- plus I'm afraid something like that will be blamed on Dems. I want him to suffer a stroke that leaves him unable to speak or use his fingers -- thereby ruling out talking, posting, golfing and eating.
As of January 21, 2027, the felon will be two years and one day past the halfway point. At that point, Vance could become president and still have two elections left in the tank. He doesn't need to be popular to anticipate winning them, he just needs to be ruthless in exercising the voter-suppression tools that have been put in place.
The question was not whether he would be out, it was whether he would still be president. There are many ways he could be our ex. Death, of course, either natural or otherwise. But he could also assume powers that are more than those that accrue to a mere President. In other words, he could actually BE a king. Or dictator for life, to bring it into the present day. Or he could be living in Russia to escape the Revolution. I just think SOMETHING has to happen. A normal presidency for the next (almost) 3 years isn't possible.
As a +70 year old taking a blood thinner myself, I recognize we have pretty solid evidence that T is not healthy. I am a retired engineer, not a doctor of medicine, but I am in the same age demographic as T and have had to read up on conditions that are more common in our age group. He is well overweight, somewhat disguised by a very good tailor. His ankles (cankles?) indicate an admitted venus issue in his legs, not uncommon at his age, which makes his heart work harder than it should, and you won’t see him walk very far or as fluidly as a healthy man because the lousy blood flow will make his legs’ ache. He admits he takes a daily adult aspirin (325mg) as a blood thinner to explain the bruised hands. At +50, many of us who lived as if we were invincible when younger, are advised to start taking a daily baby aspirin (81mg), call blood thinner lite by my doctor, to maintain a decent blood flow through arteries now lined with plaque and to reduce the chance a hunk of plaque will break off and get stuck in a smaller artery someplace crucial like the heart or brain. By +70, we are advised to switch to a prescribed blood thinner, like Elequis, because going to a heavier daily dose of aspirin invites problems with bleeding esophageal and stomach ulcers. T, being a macho man with an MIT uncle, claims to have ignored the Elequis advice and simply upped the aspirin dose (and being adept at manipulating the media, he knows taking an aspirin sounds routine and less alarming in media reports). I suspect he is also taking a prescribed blood thinner because those bruised hands don’t usually appear until you start taking them. If that’s the case, he is flirting with a big problem. Thinners like Elequis carry a big warning not to take NSAIDs like aspirin anymore lest ye incur internal bleeding somewhere critical, like the brain.“Resting his eyes” in meetings, aka drifting off, suggest his heart isn’t keeping up with demand and he may be ready for some coronary stents to open those tiny arteries in his heart. Changes in his behavior and cognition this term suggest he may already have had a ministroke or two in his brain which, statistically suggest more to come, soon. Combine all of the above and I have to wonder if we’ll see a President Vance before 2028.
Mostly I think he will become such a liability to the Republican party that those 14-17 Republican senators will actually vote to convict on whatever the House dems think is the best grounds to impeach.
That possibility is heavily reliant on the midterms being a bloodbath - not just turning several republican held seats turning democrat, but those Republicans who hold onto their's doing so by a much slimmer margin than they're used to. The Republicans will have to be scared into flipping on him. If we don't convince them that their own political survival depends on it, they won't do it. Focus your energy on getting the Dem vote out.
Absent from the discussion about Trump's future is the mechanism by which he putatively leaves office. I see no appetite whatsoever in Congress or the cabinet to remove him, no matter how egregious his failures. He is old, of course, and illness could shorten his tenure in office, but I see only *very* limited signs of a potential health catastrophe. In questions of fact it's best not to let our preferences impair our judgement.
Congress, the cabinet and SCOTUS have abdicated their duties, so no way any of them would be involved in his removal. It would have to be from a debilitating stroke or death.
Agreed-- Charlie Kirk was a misogynist racist bigot, but after he died that was all forgotten and the slightest suggestion that he wasn't the kid brother of Jesus got people fired and they were threatened with prison. Some senator introduced a bill to... I tried to drive it from my brain and memory, but I think it was a shrine to Charlie Kirk in every state capital...? Every school? Something ludicrous and scary.
Listen. My late husband was literally alive one second and dead the next. He had what is called a "widow maker" heart attack. The man ate a healthy diet, worked out, and took excellent care of himself. But a heart attack got him anyway.
Agolf Shitler has a ghastly diet, considers any kind of exercise beneath him, and does nothing to take care of himself. He is a heart attack or a stroke just waiting to happen. Whichever one it is that does the deed, it will be a doozy.
Mary, this is what I meant by not letting our preferences impair our judgement. Of course he could suffer a health catastrophe, but only wishful thinking makes the likelihood of that seem particularly high (over the next few years). As Lynn pointed out, the actuarial data suggests that he's most likely to survive his term of office.
Mary, I’m genuinely sorry about that heart attack, and that’s not at all how statistics work. I wrote “of course he [Trump] could suffer a health catastrophe,” and indeed he might. He’s just more likely to outlive Inauguration Day.
There are certainly some risks that good medical care can reduce, though he really doesn’t have the best medical team in the world. He is surely a difficult patient, certain that he can bend reality to his will, which would tend to mitigate any medical benefits. He is more likely than not to make it to Inauguration Day, but he retains plenty of health risks, which is one of the reasons I’m eager to listen to the news in the morning.
Iran, going all the way back (about 7000 years), has been battling with one entity or another. They would not be impressed, cowed, or otherwise in fear of a pipsqueak nincompoop like Shady JD. They just wouldn't. And if they're not laughing in the faces of Kushner and Witkoff, they are surely laughing at them behind their backs. Shitler should have exhumed the Three Stooges themselves to meet with the Iranians. At room temperature they would be more credible than K, V, and W, the Idiocy Boys.
RE the poll: The next pole should ask the people (like me) who chose “7-14 months” why they picked that option. I bet most of them picked it (like me) because it’s the one in the middle.
I chose that, too, but it’s because I figured that even if he kicks the bucket anytime before that his sycophants will keep it to themselves before they actually admit he’s gone. Assuming it wasn’t publicly seen, of course
W & K also weren't smart enough to understand what nuclear stuff Iran has & why it wants to keep it. One correction: there were folks there from the CIA, DoD, & State, but whether Vance & company trust them & whether Vance & Trump trust each other is not at all clear
Gary, the inability of political leadership, completely illiterate in STEM, to understand anything having to do with biology, physics, chemistry, economics--you name it--is a long-standing problem. If you're curious, read C. P. Snow's "The Two Cultures."
The fact that Trump sends Witkoff, Kushner, and Vance to "negotiate" means that the negotiations are intended to fail unless Trump and co. can get a large sum of money as a gift for Trump, a golden "Peace" trophy for Trump, and access to the region's oil - other Witkoff/Kushner deals are separately "negotiated" and do not fall under the peace agreement (if there ever is one). Without those things, there is no deal. I find it interesting that Trump uses the phrase "has no cards" when he is the one who has zero leverage. He doesn't "know when to hold 'em; know when to fold
I love you. You are a brilliant scatalogical wordsmith, à la Trump "excreted" the current moronic war, and Iran "sphinctered down" the Strait of Hormuz. So vivid and apt.
I give him till the mid-terms. If the GOP loses both houses, they will find a way to jettison him. He will "take ill" and never recover. JD Vance will be thrilled to take over the show.
I think it unfair to say TheRUMP's sneak-attacks are "Hirohito style." It was the military, under Admiral Yamamoto, who proposed, conceived, and executed the Pearl Harbor attack. Hirohito was a figurehead.
"People come up to me with tears in their eyes and say, 'Sir, what single person could have tanked the global economy and made the U.S. both a pariah and laughingstock? You did it all by yourself sir. You are truly one of a kind...sir.'"
Kind of like when my third ex-wife cooked dinner for me and I said, literally with tears in my eyes, "Honey, I've never had liver quite like this before". She was truly one of a kind. Well, actually more like 5 of a kind, but that's a story for another time.
So what do people think will get rid of him early?
He's old, but Google tells me that the average man of 79 can expect to live to 88-90. (His father had dementia and still lived to 93.)
If Dems win the house, he may be impeached - but it takes 67 senators to convict. That would require Republican votes. What have we seen that makes you think that is possible?
He's nuts, but that isn't new. Is there anything he could do that would actually get the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment? And, even if they do, if he contests it - which he would - it takes 67 senators to confirm he is impaired. Will that really happen?
I honestly hope someone can show me a reason to hope he is out before Jan 2029. He might be sick, but we have no evidence of that. And all the other options require 14-17 Republican senators to defy him. I haven't seen anything that makes me believe that will happen.
Well yeah, but I live in hope that something takes him out…
There are no easy answers. Because let’s face it, the people lined up to step in are all horrible.
I really think people wishing for this is a mistake. We want him impotent, not out. If he goes before end of term, it gives Vance a foothold on the next election. We want a bloodbath in the midterms and an endless stream of judicial losses, but his being out out will enable the continuance of MAGA after we get rid of him.
A quick death is too good for him -- plus I'm afraid something like that will be blamed on Dems. I want him to suffer a stroke that leaves him unable to speak or use his fingers -- thereby ruling out talking, posting, golfing and eating.
Yes, you have a valid point. I guess I’ll stop fantasizing that he magically disappears. 😉
As of January 21, 2027, the felon will be two years and one day past the halfway point. At that point, Vance could become president and still have two elections left in the tank. He doesn't need to be popular to anticipate winning them, he just needs to be ruthless in exercising the voter-suppression tools that have been put in place.
That's what I'm afraid of.
We posted the same idea a couple of minutes apart. Your version had more clarifying detail, while mine had greater brevity. I hope we're both wrong.
The question was not whether he would be out, it was whether he would still be president. There are many ways he could be our ex. Death, of course, either natural or otherwise. But he could also assume powers that are more than those that accrue to a mere President. In other words, he could actually BE a king. Or dictator for life, to bring it into the present day. Or he could be living in Russia to escape the Revolution. I just think SOMETHING has to happen. A normal presidency for the next (almost) 3 years isn't possible.
As a +70 year old taking a blood thinner myself, I recognize we have pretty solid evidence that T is not healthy. I am a retired engineer, not a doctor of medicine, but I am in the same age demographic as T and have had to read up on conditions that are more common in our age group. He is well overweight, somewhat disguised by a very good tailor. His ankles (cankles?) indicate an admitted venus issue in his legs, not uncommon at his age, which makes his heart work harder than it should, and you won’t see him walk very far or as fluidly as a healthy man because the lousy blood flow will make his legs’ ache. He admits he takes a daily adult aspirin (325mg) as a blood thinner to explain the bruised hands. At +50, many of us who lived as if we were invincible when younger, are advised to start taking a daily baby aspirin (81mg), call blood thinner lite by my doctor, to maintain a decent blood flow through arteries now lined with plaque and to reduce the chance a hunk of plaque will break off and get stuck in a smaller artery someplace crucial like the heart or brain. By +70, we are advised to switch to a prescribed blood thinner, like Elequis, because going to a heavier daily dose of aspirin invites problems with bleeding esophageal and stomach ulcers. T, being a macho man with an MIT uncle, claims to have ignored the Elequis advice and simply upped the aspirin dose (and being adept at manipulating the media, he knows taking an aspirin sounds routine and less alarming in media reports). I suspect he is also taking a prescribed blood thinner because those bruised hands don’t usually appear until you start taking them. If that’s the case, he is flirting with a big problem. Thinners like Elequis carry a big warning not to take NSAIDs like aspirin anymore lest ye incur internal bleeding somewhere critical, like the brain.“Resting his eyes” in meetings, aka drifting off, suggest his heart isn’t keeping up with demand and he may be ready for some coronary stents to open those tiny arteries in his heart. Changes in his behavior and cognition this term suggest he may already have had a ministroke or two in his brain which, statistically suggest more to come, soon. Combine all of the above and I have to wonder if we’ll see a President Vance before 2028.
This is my take exactly, and why I was another one of the 9%. I'd love to be wrong, though.
I think he’ll be literally crawling on the floor peeing himself and the Cabinet will summon up enough honor and courage to take the necessary action.
Mostly I think he will become such a liability to the Republican party that those 14-17 Republican senators will actually vote to convict on whatever the House dems think is the best grounds to impeach.
That possibility is heavily reliant on the midterms being a bloodbath - not just turning several republican held seats turning democrat, but those Republicans who hold onto their's doing so by a much slimmer margin than they're used to. The Republicans will have to be scared into flipping on him. If we don't convince them that their own political survival depends on it, they won't do it. Focus your energy on getting the Dem vote out.
And the winner of the best quote of 2026 is “The man is walking around in shoes that don’t fit him. He is literally a clown.”
I figured Rubio was not in Islamabad because he was still trying wriggle free of the Easter bunny costume.
Maybe he was trying to get those clown shoes of his altered so they'd fit.
He couldn’t figure out how to get the bunny suit off over the shoes.
An equally good possibility
Absent from the discussion about Trump's future is the mechanism by which he putatively leaves office. I see no appetite whatsoever in Congress or the cabinet to remove him, no matter how egregious his failures. He is old, of course, and illness could shorten his tenure in office, but I see only *very* limited signs of a potential health catastrophe. In questions of fact it's best not to let our preferences impair our judgement.
Congress, the cabinet and SCOTUS have abdicated their duties, so no way any of them would be involved in his removal. It would have to be from a debilitating stroke or death.
Or, an unfortunate "accident."
Or a more fortunate assassination.
Last (nearly) thing we need is some kind of bogus martyrdom.
Agreed-- Charlie Kirk was a misogynist racist bigot, but after he died that was all forgotten and the slightest suggestion that he wasn't the kid brother of Jesus got people fired and they were threatened with prison. Some senator introduced a bill to... I tried to drive it from my brain and memory, but I think it was a shrine to Charlie Kirk in every state capital...? Every school? Something ludicrous and scary.
Our MAGAT moron (but I repeat myself) governor suggested the same thing.
No, that would make him a MAGA martyr and 1000 high schools would be renamed for him. Please God, NO.
Well, maybe fatal heart attack/stroke?
Go Blood Clot 2026!!
Listen. My late husband was literally alive one second and dead the next. He had what is called a "widow maker" heart attack. The man ate a healthy diet, worked out, and took excellent care of himself. But a heart attack got him anyway.
Agolf Shitler has a ghastly diet, considers any kind of exercise beneath him, and does nothing to take care of himself. He is a heart attack or a stroke just waiting to happen. Whichever one it is that does the deed, it will be a doozy.
Hope springs eternal.
Mary, this is what I meant by not letting our preferences impair our judgement. Of course he could suffer a health catastrophe, but only wishful thinking makes the likelihood of that seem particularly high (over the next few years). As Lynn pointed out, the actuarial data suggests that he's most likely to survive his term of office.
Actuarial data would have suggested my husband would live until well into his 70s, if not his 80s. He died at 55. So much for statistics.
Mary, I’m genuinely sorry about that heart attack, and that’s not at all how statistics work. I wrote “of course he [Trump] could suffer a health catastrophe,” and indeed he might. He’s just more likely to outlive Inauguration Day.
Winston Churchill was overweight and lived on scotch and cigars and died at 90.
POTUS heart attack while engaged in COiTUS with FLOTUS.
Word is she hates him with a purple passion.
My condolences, Mary. That’s scary. Except when it comes to the removal of the orange blight, of course.
Trump has one of the best medical teams in the world. Any health issue would have to be beyond intervention to kill him.
Not to say it couldn't happen, but it doesn't seem super likely.
There are certainly some risks that good medical care can reduce, though he really doesn’t have the best medical team in the world. He is surely a difficult patient, certain that he can bend reality to his will, which would tend to mitigate any medical benefits. He is more likely than not to make it to Inauguration Day, but he retains plenty of health risks, which is one of the reasons I’m eager to listen to the news in the morning.
Vance: "Okay, this is how it's gonna go. Either you open the Strait of Hormuz or we'll close it for you. Got that?!"
Iran, going all the way back (about 7000 years), has been battling with one entity or another. They would not be impressed, cowed, or otherwise in fear of a pipsqueak nincompoop like Shady JD. They just wouldn't. And if they're not laughing in the faces of Kushner and Witkoff, they are surely laughing at them behind their backs. Shitler should have exhumed the Three Stooges themselves to meet with the Iranians. At room temperature they would be more credible than K, V, and W, the Idiocy Boys.
"If you close it, we want some of the action..."
I did not answer your poll. Any additional day Trump survives either life or office is a day too long.
RE the poll: The next pole should ask the people (like me) who chose “7-14 months” why they picked that option. I bet most of them picked it (like me) because it’s the one in the middle.
Exactly what I thought, Ed.
I chose that, too, but it’s because I figured that even if he kicks the bucket anytime before that his sycophants will keep it to themselves before they actually admit he’s gone. Assuming it wasn’t publicly seen, of course
A fund manager, a real estate developer and a would-be vice president walk into a war...
trump and these clowns are idiots who think they’re geniuses. And the world is at their mercy. Beyond frightening.
W & K also weren't smart enough to understand what nuclear stuff Iran has & why it wants to keep it. One correction: there were folks there from the CIA, DoD, & State, but whether Vance & company trust them & whether Vance & Trump trust each other is not at all clear
I was a physics major for four years and I do know. But I do not see many in government elected offices that have any ideas at all.
Gary, the inability of political leadership, completely illiterate in STEM, to understand anything having to do with biology, physics, chemistry, economics--you name it--is a long-standing problem. If you're curious, read C. P. Snow's "The Two Cultures."
Thanks. Good point.
The fact that Trump sends Witkoff, Kushner, and Vance to "negotiate" means that the negotiations are intended to fail unless Trump and co. can get a large sum of money as a gift for Trump, a golden "Peace" trophy for Trump, and access to the region's oil - other Witkoff/Kushner deals are separately "negotiated" and do not fall under the peace agreement (if there ever is one). Without those things, there is no deal. I find it interesting that Trump uses the phrase "has no cards" when he is the one who has zero leverage. He doesn't "know when to hold 'em; know when to fold
em; know when to walk away; know when to run."
To that, Colin Jost quipped, “They have a strait.”
I love you. You are a brilliant scatalogical wordsmith, à la Trump "excreted" the current moronic war, and Iran "sphinctered down" the Strait of Hormuz. So vivid and apt.
I give him till the mid-terms. If the GOP loses both houses, they will find a way to jettison him. He will "take ill" and never recover. JD Vance will be thrilled to take over the show.
Yeah. I expect an announcement along the lines of, "The President is exhausted." (Not so much as the rest of us, of course.)
I selected greater than 24 months, because I feel in my bones that January 6th was a dress rehearsal--so gloomy am I. Linda Spiegler
Thus, the ballroom.
AAM, can you explain ? Thanks, Linda
A nice sturdy building to protect him from rioters, including gunfire and whatever weaponry US citizens are allowed to have.
AAM, please explain. Thanks, Linda
I think it unfair to say TheRUMP's sneak-attacks are "Hirohito style." It was the military, under Admiral Yamamoto, who proposed, conceived, and executed the Pearl Harbor attack. Hirohito was a figurehead.