Sometimes, it really does feel like we all collectively entered some wormhole in 2016 and time makes no sense anymore. For the better part of a DECADE, we’ve been dealing with Donald Trump and his MAGA cult. Think about that. Nine years of dealing with the violent cult of personality around Trump, a cult of ignorance and hate, a cult of racism and misogyny, a cult of fraud and lies. We talk a lot about what a “second Trump presidency” would look like as a very real scare tactic, but what will it look like if Trump loses in November? What happens to his cult after their orange god loses the popular vote for the third time and the presidency for the second time? The con man turned 78 years old this summer. He will be 82 years old in 2028. Would he run again, or pass the torch to some deranged heir? Well, Trump is telling people that he will not run again if he loses.
Republican Donald Trump said that he will not make a fourth consecutive run for the U.S. presidency if he loses the Nov. 5 election, saying “that will be it” in an interview released on Sunday.
Asked if he saw himself running again in four years if he is not successful in his third consecutive bid for the White House, the 78-year-old former president told Sharyl Attkisson’s “Full Measure” program: “No I don’t. I think that will be — that will be it. I don’t see that at all. Hopefully, we will be successful.”
Trump faces a tight race against Democratic U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, with polls showing the two neck-and-neck in key battleground states that are likely to be decisive in determining the winner, even as Harris has begun to edge up in nationwide polls.
Trump launched his first reelection bid for the 2020 election the same day he was inaugurated in 2017 and announced his latest White House bid two years ago in November 2022.
Asked whether the four year break helped him regroup and figure out who he could trust as allies, Trump said: “It would have been easier if I did it … contiguous.”
“But the benefit is more than anything else, it shows how bad they were,” he added.
Do you believe him? The thing is, if he loses this year, that’s pretty much game over for him – chickens will come home to roost, finally. He’s got indictments and court cases up the wazoo. He’s hemorrhaging money on legal bills and civil and federal penalties. Some say that Trump isn’t just running this year to make his court cases go away, that it’s also a money-making venture for him, that he’s using campaign money to pay his legal expenses and debts. Hopefully, by 2028, he’ll be in prison.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red, mug shot.