On MSNBC yesterday, I was asked if Donald Trump would try to hold on to the White House after 2028.
Duh.
I wrote up a little tick-tock of how it happens:
March 1, 2027: The Oath
Republican candidates are all asked by the White House to swear to support Donald Trump in the 2028 election. J.D. Vance is the first to do so.
November 5, 2028: Election Night
The ballroom at Mar-a-Lago is a gaudy cocoon of certainty. Red velvet drapes, gilded columns, and flat-screen TVs tuned only to Fox. At 10:45 p.m., Donald J. Trump waddles, older and sicker, to the stage, bathed in klieg lights. Only 65% of the vote is counted, but he knows exactly what he’s doing; Arizona, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania hang in the balance. But Trump doesn’t care about arithmetic.
“We won. Everyone knows it,” he bellows. “Any ballots they find after tonight are fake. Rigged. We’re not going to let the steal happen again.”
The words are a trigger. Outside in Phoenix and Atlanta, DHS and ICE agents in tactical gear are already assembling at counting centers. They’re joined by a shocking number of local cops and state troopers who have been hearing for weeks in the cop underground that the moment was here. Trump supporters likewise surround polling and counting centers. Their livestreams beam into millions of homes: grainy video of ballot boxes, muttered threats, the hum of diesel engines idling in parking lots. AI videos appear across social platforms, claiming massive Democratic voter fraud.
The media can’t keep up.