Most Americans disapprove of Donald Trump's presidency at this point. At the same time, there's a very long Wikipedia page entitled "Age and Health Concerns About Donald Trump." Erratic behavior and signs of worsening dementia are widely reported. And he has been disappearing sporadically for periods of time, with no reasonable explanation, sparking concern about health issues in real time.
This is a man who, by almost any measure, should not be President. There has been an almost constant undercurrent of talk about the 25th Amendment almost from the beginning of his first term. He has been impeached twice, once for making an arms deal with Ukraine dependent on action that benefited him politically, and once after the January 6th insurrection. His extensive record of breaking the law during his second term will certainly lead to a third impeachment should the Democrats re-take the House next year.
He has caused irreparable damage to so much that so many hold dear, that there is a brisk trade in "big, beautiful obituary" memes and paraphernalia. I've been part of many conversations that included this solution. For so many, this seems the only route out of fascism and chaos and back into reason and democracy.
But it won't be. If Donald Trump is removed from the White House, by the Constitution or the coroner, JD Vance becomes the President of the United States. If for some reason he can't serve, Mike Johnson is next in line, and next after him, God help us, is Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, president pro tempore of the Senate, who is 92 years old. And then the line of succession leads us through the Fox News clown car which is Trump's Cabinet. It's fascists all the way down.
JD Vance will be a much worse President than Trump, because he will be very efficient in the use of the power of the President, power that Trump has squandered in bursts of ignorance, pettiness, bizarre behavior and revenge. The evil represented by Project 2025 will become institutionalized, because Vance, no matter what you think of him, is smarter than Trump and is much more focused on policy - and on how to use available resources, including Steven Miller, Steve Bannon, and the whole Fox News team. It will not be pretty, and there'll be no one to laugh at.
So, at least for now, here's to a long life for the President. May he foil by bumbling the worst impulses of his henchmen and of his own disordered mind. May he wander and drool all over the 2026 and 2028 elections, assuring an epic life of ignominious uselessness starting in January of 2027 - for him and the worst of his fascist colleagues.
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