The New York Times quoted unnamed allies of the president questioning his commitment to re-election and whether he really wants the job another four more years. I think President Trump can show immediate and decisive presidential leadership by following the lead of another beleaguered president and announce that he will neither seek nor accept his party’s nomination for the presidency.
By choosing not to run for re-election, Trump could close his twitter account and actually govern from the center without pushback from his conservative base. He could direct additional rounds of cash transfers to aid ailing Americans, he could reimpose a 50 state social distancing order to curb the rapid outbreaks in the prematurely reopened southeast and southwest, he could work with Senate Democrats and swing state Republicans to override McConnells veto on desperately needed aid to the states, and he could take decisive executive action to reform police department and prove that black lives indeed matter to the federal government. We know it’s unlikely, but the choice facing Mr. Trump is leadership that salvages his legacy today or going into the history books a massive failure. The choice is his.
Trump show leadership (or sacrifice power)? – surely you jest!
I think that Donald Trump has already defined himself to be America’s Adolf Hitler. Nothing Mr. Trump does now can change that. If Mr. Trump chose not to run, I think it would be a political godsend to the GOP and would likely result in a GOP landslide in November.
I think the result would be to cement, rather than erase, the unanimous contempt for Donald J. Trump — and that’s why I think he’s unlikely to follow through on it.
I have felt for a very long time — and argued here occasionally — that Mike Pence or some other GOP figure is a much tougher opponent in November that Donald Trump. I have even wondered from time to time whether this has been a very private agreement with Mr. McConnell and other Senate GOP leaders.
As much as I despised LBJ when he stepped down (I was a passionate 15 year old), Donald Trump is far worse. I do not share history’s generally positive view of LBJ — I do not view him as a tragic figure who would have been a great president had he not made a tragic blunder in his policy towards Southeast Asia. I think that LBJ was, at his core, an opportunist who ALWAYS put his own interests above everything else. Donald Trump is the first president since LBJ who has been so brazenly candid about that stance. Mr. Trump is not the first who has held those values.
The uniquely dangerous aspect that I see in Mr. Trump is a pathological self-destructive passion for celebrity and public accolades. It appears to me that this passion drives Mr. Trump into the arms of despots and of right-wing nut-cases. This is what Vladimir Putin exploits so adroitly in making Mr. Trump a Russian asset. It is this passion that makes Mr. Trump a clear and present danger to every American, because I think Mr. Trump has already chosen to kill millions of Americans over a public shaming. That choice is the only obvious explanation for his policies towards the pandemic and now towards police brutality.
I can see how a decision for Donald Trump to follow LBJ’s lead could lead to a GOP landslide in November. I think it’s also more likely than not that it would result in a unanimous national consensus that Donald Trump has been a national disgrace, a public figure whose presidency will forever after be the nadir of American politics.
I love the speculation of the thread-starter. I fear the result if it were to happen, because I think the outcome could be even more disastrous for America than the last four years have been.
Nevertheless, I do not think that Donald Trump will ever voluntarily relinquish power. I think that armed force will be required to remove him from office — before or after November 2, 2020.
This reminds of the cartoon where an umpire says, “Wait a minute, that fan in the third row is right! That last pitch was a strike!”
What’s the point?