I have a political riddle for you.

[DetlefK]

Imagine that Trump is gone. Heart-attack, impeached, jailed, voted out of office, whatever.

Who could the GOP run as his successor?
Who could convince the hardcore Trump-voters to vote for him, despite not being Saint Trump himself?

Old-school Republicans in the vein of Bush, McCain, Romney simply aren't evil enough to their taste.
Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, those are spineless wimps and not aggressive enough to their taste.
Who could it be?





And...

Whoever runs for President after Trump, what are the odds that Trump will dutifully nod and support him instead of sabotaging him from the sidelines with bullshit-tweets and bullshit-speeches?

[NCTraveler]

1. The GOP has lost a bit of control.

They don’t make the choice tho I’m sure they would favor someone in their primary.

[spanone]

2. Vladimir Putin.

[Ohiogal]

3. You don't think they'd go for Pence, Trumpy's number one sycophant?

[Recursion]

4. No, Pence's only purpose is as a backstop

Somebody who isn't dirty with Russia money just in case.

[Alwaysna]

5. One from "Freedom Caucus" or

Bannon

[el_bryanto]

6. Hmmmmm . . . and it's hard to get a tie around a ravenous wolverine . . .

As for the second question, I think Trump will show himself to be the biggest crybaby the world has ever known.

Bryant

[Orsino]

7. Dutifully nodding and supporting is boring.

Trump might be lazy enough for that, but his ego will drive him to tout his expertise in all things and will fuck up the race for the chosen successor.

He might not intend sabotage--and Putin will no doubt order him to stand behind a Republican nominee--but he can only break things.

[underpants]

8. I thought in 2016 that Rand Paul was their best candidate

but he, along with others, got lost in the crowd of faces. They had 15-17 people running and they had to winnow it down to 10 for debates. Trump sucked all the oxygen out of the room. His weekly Monday morning phone ins to Fox & Friends made him vastly more visible to their base to the point that FoxNews couldn't put him away.

His libertarian background and his father giving him major bonafides is the type of candidate who can pull the whack jobs and the establishment together. But don't discount Ted Cruz either.

[Doc_Technical]

9. Rep. Steve King

Rep. Louie Gohmert

[Saviolo]

10. Someone like Stephen Miller

A white nationalist white supremacist who's already in tight with the administration. Another person with fascist fantasies of power and the urge to purge anyone not like themselves.