What Could Come After?

I hear a lot of talk about convicted felon Donald J. Trump's (referenced as "the Felon" hereafter) impending death lately. People are talking about the Felon's swollen ankles ("cankles"), the bruising on his hands and the bad attempts to cover them with makeup, his inability to walk straight without assistance, and a mysterious bulge under his clothing speculated to be an LVAD which stands for a Left Ventricular Assist Device, commonly used to keep victims of heart failure alive until they can receive a heart transplant. It isn't a stretch to say that the Felon is in poor health after a lifetime without regular exercise and the kind of diet that doctors warn us against. He can't stay awake during important meetings and he can't stay focused on relevant topics of conversation. Physically and mentally, he's obviously in decline. The 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was written specifically for a President like the Felon, and people have been asking why it hasn't been invoked. I think I have an answer. Not a good answer, not an answer that I find comforting, but I think it fits the available data.

Enter James Donald Bowman, who changed his name to "James David Vance," known as the Couchfucker JD Vance (referenced as "the Couchfucker" hereafter). Another opportunist who has ambition but no integrity, the Couchfucker was against the Felon before he became the Felon's sychophant. Nobody but techbros like Peter Thiel like him, so the Couchfucker kisses the asses of the rich and powerful who can give him the wealth and power he craves. But like Grima Wormtongue from the Lord of the Rings, he knows how to flatter and influence them to his own benefit. Thus, he went from someone who publicly presented himself as a trans ally to a paleoconservative culture warrior because he viewed it as the more effective way to achieve his goals. Maybe his religious conversion to Catholicism played a part in this, but personally I suspect that was more for branding than anything else. The Couchfucker is not a man of principles, but opportunity. He has ambition, and he has a plan for achieving it.

So the Couchfucker slept his way up the ranks of the GOP elite to secure his position as Vice President. In that role he's been visibly loyal to the Felon, backing him up in attacking our allies and touting Fox News talking points. He's been vocal in promoting racism but surprisingly quiet about his support for the war in Iran which has apparently created strife with the Felon. But he wants to succeed the Felon as President and the war in Iran has been historically unpopular even within the MAGAt base. So it makes sense that the Couchfucker isn't saying much in public to support it. The problem is that the Couchfucker doesn't have the charisma to hold on to the MAGAt base. They don't like him, or at least they don't care about him. Lots of people are jockeying for position to take the reins once the Felon passes on, since there's no way he'll voluntarily step down from power, which includes the likes of Little Marco Rubio, Ken Paxton, and others. This then brings me to a strategy that I'm pretty sure the Couchfucker has been thinking about for a while.

The Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States limits a President's tenure to two terms. But it does allow a person to serve out the second half of another person's term in addition to their own two terms. So the Couchfucker needs the Felon to serve out the full first half of his second term before he takes over in the second half. He needs the Felon to survive until January 2027, and if he's willing to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment at all, he won't move until January 2027.

It is by no means guaranteed that the Couchfucker will take this action. It carries significant risks, hearkening back to his problem with the base. If he were to make the move to remove the Felon from power to take his place, it could enrage the MAGAt base especially since there's no way the Felon would go quietly. It would be better for him if the Felon simply fell over from the inevitable heart failure we all know is coming. But even if he did, it would give him two years to mend fences, work on his PR, and reverse the most unpopular positions implemented by the Felon in his frantic bid to cement his fascist takeover of our government. End the Iran war, blame the fallout on the Felon's demented recklessness. Tamp down the abusive excesses of ICE and Border Patrol so they're not so blatant. End the ridiculous tariff policies that have hit working class Americans so hard. He could position himself as the White Knight riding in to save the people from the mad king who was oppressing them so badly. He could win back the Republican base, maybe even the MAGAts, and a lot of the independents who are rightly disgusted with this fascist regime. It wouldn't take much.

The Couchfucker is not stupid. Cowardly, spineless, greedy, and opportunistic, but not stupid. The Felon has created an opportunity that is unique in US history. We've never had a President so openly corrupt and fascist, and anyone who cleans up the mess he's making will probably be hailed as a hero. It's no secret that the voting public doesn't pay attention, doesn't want to pay attention to anything outside their bubble. They deeply resent anything that forces them to look up and notice what's going on. So if Vance were to pull that schtick, he could probably win the 2028 Presidential election and go back to quietly resuming the work of transforming the US into a fascist empire where he never has to surrender power. The empire that the Felon desperately wants, but has neither the intelligence nor the patience to build. I think the Couchfucker does, and he's young enough to see it through.

So the Felon is dying, and in his desperation he's been making obviously desperate moves to crown himself as an authoritarian dictator the way he's always dreamed. This has pissed off a majority of the voting public and fractured the otherwise loyal MAGAt base who feel they've been betrayed. The Couchfucker has distanced himself from the war in Iran which has generated the most ire, and is best positioned to remove the Felon from power and install himself as the nation's savior. Best case scenario for him is that the Felon dies of natural causes in the first quarter of 2027, but if not there's always the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. Will he do it? I can't honestly say for sure. But I think the odds are pretty good that he'll try something like this.