What would happen if he did drop out? Have we ever had a presidential election that went uncontested?
The republicans would have to find someone new, really quickly.
Trump will never drop out though.
But the cheeseburgers could catch up to him at any moment. He’s old AF and looks to be in terrible shape.
Believe it or not, he’s lost a lot of weight in the past year. He must be laying off the Big Macs (and/or downing amphetamines)
Can they though? RFK has been forced to stay on ballots in a few states because it’s too late to drop out. States like MI is one and it would be a automatic win for Harris since ballots can’t change.
I believe from memory (and I’d have to research this myself again) that while the ballots wouldn’t change, whoever the GOP has running in his place would win the spot. You can’t just win an election because your opponent disappears.
I would LOVE to see Trump drop out for whatever reason, and then the GOP has a vote like they did for the speaker of the house to see who takes his place. The drama of all the wackos that 1/2 of even the GOP worst dislike, mixed with all the opportunist bottom feeders, all trying to battle it out to lead the party in the new power vacuum of “yes men/women” would be just pay-per-view level entertainment.
Or if he doesn’t drop out, it will still be worth watching Trump getting weaker and weaker while the vultures are circling.
It’s probably too late to change candidates to a new one, so they’re stuck with Vance. Their best hope would be to parachute in someone charismatic and with appeal to a plausible “silent majority” of conservative-leaning voters à la Reagan, or at least someone who can keep his skinsuit on properly when in public. Given the way that from 2016, if not the Tea Party era, onwards, Republicans have either been primaried out of politics for being “RINOs” or else drunk deeply of the Kool-Aid and embraced the spiral of radicalism to keep up, there aren’t many plausible candidates who haven’t abased themselves.
So the Republicans would be thoroughly screwed, at least if they didn’t have the Electoral College, the Supreme Court, gerrymandering, voter suppression, the backing of billionaires and all the dirty tricks Putin and Musk between them can muster. As it stands, they may have to fight dirtier than they planned, with uncertain results.
