He will never willingly let go of his control over his base. Trump doesn’t give a single fuck about the MAGA movement beyond the fact that it is his own personal army of zombie sycophants. His followers may be dogmatic about MAGA, but I can assure you that Trump himself is not. If he dropped dead tomorrow MAGA would instantaneously begin fizzling out, and it would fracture the Republican party.
The greatest gift trump could ever giver america is, when he loses the nomination in 2028, to run as a third party candidate. Hopefully he never lets go of his base.
Based on what my true-crime cult obsessed friend has said on the matter, option 2 is probably the most likely; though the party at large will always rally behind whoever the nominee is, because that’s how Republicans operate.
DeSantis already tried to court the cult of Trump, and he failed because these cults of personality are entirely fixed around their leader. As my buddy described it, it’s not like a hydra where you can cut the head off and the cult keeps going. Once the leader is gone, they fizzle out. Even in the case of endorsing a successor, I can’t imagine the group having the same kind of following for the same reason - without Trump, the Flavor-Aid sours. There will be new leaders, but they’ll have to work to sway the core voters in the way that Trump has. And the Flavor-Aid is a perfect metaphor, because Trump sounds exactly like Jim Jones according to my friend.
Can Trump transfer his cult to a successor with a mere endorsement and forever continue a cycle of scrambling to vote for this “last” democrat.
Trump cares about not going to jail and Trump in approximately equal amounts. No way he lets someone else take the wheel. If he somehow became president again he’d start looking at repealing the 22nd before he’d endorse anyone else.
I kind of fear what comes next after Trump (he is old and I can’t imagine him serving a full term).
He will never willingly let go of his control over his base. Trump doesn’t give a single fuck about the MAGA movement beyond the fact that it is his own personal army of zombie sycophants. His followers may be dogmatic about MAGA, but I can assure you that Trump himself is not. If he dropped dead tomorrow MAGA would instantaneously begin fizzling out, and it would fracture the Republican party.
The greatest gift trump could ever giver america is, when he loses the nomination in 2028, to run as a third party candidate. Hopefully he never lets go of his base.
Based on what my true-crime cult obsessed friend has said on the matter, option 2 is probably the most likely; though the party at large will always rally behind whoever the nominee is, because that’s how Republicans operate.
DeSantis already tried to court the cult of Trump, and he failed because these cults of personality are entirely fixed around their leader. As my buddy described it, it’s not like a hydra where you can cut the head off and the cult keeps going. Once the leader is gone, they fizzle out. Even in the case of endorsing a successor, I can’t imagine the group having the same kind of following for the same reason - without Trump, the Flavor-Aid sours. There will be new leaders, but they’ll have to work to sway the core voters in the way that Trump has. And the Flavor-Aid is a perfect metaphor, because Trump sounds exactly like Jim Jones according to my friend.
This is the first time in the wild that I have seen someone correctly mention “Flavor-Aid” instead of “Kool-Aid” in reference to Jim Jones.
Trump cares about not going to jail and Trump in approximately equal amounts. No way he lets someone else take the wheel. If he somehow became president again he’d start looking at repealing the 22nd before he’d endorse anyone else.
Trump has none of the admirable qualities of someone who’s overcome a mental disability. He oozes neurotypical privilege.