2019: I predict The Trump presidency will unravel suddenly. He will not run for re-election.

[shockey80]

The combination of the Mueller investigation and the storm of House investigations that will start in January are not survivable. I do not know if Trump will impeached, even though he should be. I believe he will lose support from the Republicans in congress. They will try to save themselves and their party. Once that happens the Trump presidency will come apart quickly.

Trump will not seek re-election or he may even resign. Trump also has to worry about the investigations in the southern district of New York. They are a major threat to Trump , his family, his organization. Trump has ruined his life and possibly his children lives. Trump is a fucking asshole. He will be under investigation the rest his life.

[Me.]

1. Totally Agree

The tide is already turning and I'm thinking it's going to get progressively worse Jan & Feb

[Charlotte Little]

36. I had this exact some thought this morning

You can see a shift on the morning news shows. They are not tiptoeing around the obvious anymore.

It's a matter of time.

[ProfessorGAC]

47. He Never Really Wanted This Gig

He's never actually worked and day in his life and this job actually requires some work.

You just know he is hating every minute of it, except when he gets to use that pulpit to spew nonsense to the base. The rest probably has him miserable, and it's only going to get worse now that an entire branch of government is no longer a rubber stamp (or that he is simply a useful idiot to their whims.)

[Me.]

49. I'm Hating Every Minute Of It Too

and hoping just desserts grabs him by the collar, stupid, arrogant, eveil jackasss to run in the first place

[ProfessorGAC]

50. I Can Empathize

Still to this day, i can't understand why anybody in their right mind (absent explicit misogyny or backlash racism over BHO) would think a billionaire born with a silverspoon in their mouth would be an advocate.

I remember waking up that morning just thinking "You've got to be kidding me! That idiot won?!?!?"

[Me.]

52. ...

[thegoose]

2. Why wait?

He needs to go now.

[LBM20]

7. He's an ASSHOLE, but is the president, and we don't do coups. There is a process.

[thegoose]

8. The coup already happened

That's why his orange ass is there.

[Eyeball_Kid]

34. You've got that right. n/t

[maddiemom]

43. I'll second that!

[demsocialist]

3. I am hoping that he doesn't make it out of this term n/t

[Scarsdale]

48. Poetic justice.

He thought he could pull his dirty tricks in the WH, and he just got slapped down. I do not want him getting the perks of a former president, the pension, protection, allowances etc. He was NEVER a real president, why should taxpayers be on the hook for even more easy money to him? Criminal prosecution should be in his future, along with his grifting "kids"

[McCamy Taylor]

4. But he will pretend he is running again so he can accept bribes. Lots of suckers will write checks

to Jared in hopes of getting favors from Trump--that will never be delivered.

[GopherGal]

40. I'm torn on that one.

The only part of the presidency he seems to like is the adulation from the nut jobs at his campaign rallies, so he might stick with that for a bit (especially if the fundraising can be used for legal defense funds). But then how does he get out of it? Claim illness? Or some phony self-righteousness to protect his family?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Gradually, and then suddenly, as Hemingway put it.

[tparrett62]

21. EXACTLY what I was thinking

Once it really starts to unravel so obviously that no one can deny it, everyone is going to be amazed that it took so long to happen.

[dalton99a]

6. His re-election campaign is just a money-making scheme for the crime family

[Garrett78]

10. If he can be convinced that he can't win re-election, then I think he'll resign. For ego's sake.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. Yup. This investigation is moving fast.

[Jarqui]

12. The polls will curtail him running in 2020

It will be obvious that he has no chance.

But he'll stay in office. The Republicans enabled him and they're going to cover each other as best they can for the next two years.

[cwydro]

13. Bookmarked.

Sure hope so.

[MrsCoffee]

14. He won't run. He can't barely show his face in public now.

[elocs]

15. I think Trump will proclaim his presidency

to be the greatest in history and he will claim he is choosing not to run because Liberals and the media are involved in a massive conspiracy to bring him down. He will get a pardon from Pence and then continue to rabble-rouse and inflame his loyal worshipers.

[Garrett78]

23. This pretty much echoes my forecast.

[Generic Brad]

37. He'll lose his Twitter platform in that scenario

He violates their Terms of Service daily but is excused because he is president. But if he were out of office, he would no longer be free to bully and intimidate on Twitter any longer. (He would have to switch to Instagram like Roger Stone).

[The Wizard]

44. Waht happens if Pence is indicted

before Trump gone?

[elocs]

45. How fast do you think this all will happen?

Trump can drag this out and his ace in the hole to do it would be the Supreme Court.
We really need to stop the feeding frenzy our what we hope and fantasize what will happen and just look at the reality of what might happen.

[Hekate]

16. He may abruptly walk off the stage at some event and snarl "Get me out of here." ...

You comment about unravelling suddenly is similar to something said early on in this fiasco about gigantic businesses: They collapse very very slowly, until they collapse all at once.

On edit: looking upthread at Ocelot's post, I see the person I heard must have been quoting Hemingway. Ta.

[sarisataka]

17. "Trump will quit before the election"

Is something I heard from June 2015 until November 2016. Hearing it now makes me think of a certain kid getting ready to kick a football.

[Squinch]

32. He was enjoying it then, though. He hates it now. And I think the sudden disappearances this week

are a sign that he is realizing what a buffoon the rest of the world thinks he is at the same time as he admits to himself just how huge his legal troubles are.

He really can't stand this.

[Awsi Dooger]

18. I'll stick to normalcy and not Happy Adjustment

Day to day indications are the worst type of trap. It is almost like an evil clown pulling strings and laughing all the way, as he sends overreactive types in one misguided direction, then the other.

Big picture dominates. Incumbent seeks the nomination again, destroys all challengers, and is hellish to defeat in November, given all the inherent advantages of incumbency.

[Garrett78]

26. Normalcy went out the window a while ago.

I hear what you're saying, but this is an extraordinary case.

Now, I think many will be disappointed by how few consequences Trump and other Republicans face. I certainly don't think, for instance, that Trump will end up in jail. But Trump's odds of winning re-election are not like those of his predecessors (aside from maybe Nixon).

[libdem4life]

19. I've felt this for some time. Mainly based on the Midterms and

the rapid drum beat of scandal, preposterous events, dementia, his tax proposals and tariffs are decimating his Red State base, while making us look like fools and pouting at international events. Then of course, there is the Mueller-Cohen conversation taking place in broad daylight.

When his Cabinet...,the longer they stay the harder to find a new position... and when the R's constituents begin to show their displeasure prior to 2020, he's gone. They value their re-election more than anything else. And for him, I think the clincher will be his kids...not that he cares about them...but that they will flip on him in a New York minute.

Two things that will hit him hard...poverty and irrelevancy.

[FloridaBlues]

20. I agree that trump will be forced to resign long before 2020

[Vinca]

22. I disagree for one reason. The only way he stays out of jail is to stay in the White House.

It's a mystery to me why the Justice Dept. won't indict a sitting president, but that's the policy. Once out of office they're toast.

[Renew Deal]

24. Nikki Haley is counting on this

[BannonsLiver]

30. I wonder what she thinks her future is?

Difficult to imagine the current GOP primary electorate nominating a woman and one who comes from brown skinned parents to boot. I’m sure she thinks she’s got a bright future, but I’m not so sure.

[maryellen99]

25. I think it's going to be a "medical emergency" nt

[duforsure]

27. I agree

I also think he has known it for awhile and is doing the rally's to generate his legal defense fund money for himself, and not for re-election.

[ThoughtCriminal]

28. If it happens, I think it will be sudden

There will be one last day when most "experts" will assume that somehow, he will stick it out to the end of his term. Then suddenly, there will be a week like we have never seen since Nixon, where everything comes apart all at once. There will be a meeting with GOP leaders and the next day, he resigns.

It may not be so much what the investigations reveal, as what happens to the economy. One forgotten thing about Nixon is that the country was in a very bad mood in 1974 for reasons unrelated to Watergate. The oil embargo, inflation, and recession were bringing an end to a generation of prosperity that middle America had come to expect. That is why Trump can cling to approval ratings in the mid to high 30's and Nixon was in the teens.

[ProudLib72]

29. I predict serveral momentous melt downs

followed by several heinous acts by his deplorable attack dogs.

In other words, it's going to get a lot worse from now until the bitter end.

[Squinch]

31. I have March of 2019 in the pool. By then he will, somehow, be completely powerless.

Either resigned or in so much legal trouble he will not be able to do anything else, or just ignored by everyone and completely impotent.

[dlk]

33. It's More Likely Trump Will Run for Cover - And Leave the U. S. Permanently to Avoid Extradition

Just guessing here.

[Buckeyeblue]

35. If he does not resign he will run for reelection

And if he gets beat in the primary, he will run as an independent and do everything he can to sabotage the repugs. His base will stick with him.

[byronius]

38. That sounds about right to me as well. It's how history works.

They'll keep cover until there's just too many holes, and then -- pwooof.

Classic narcissm traits. His subconscious wants all of his weird internal bizzarities exposed to the entire world -- for narcissists, there is a sexual thrill in the shame of Full Exposure.

Cue nobody admitting that they ever voted for him.

Cue chyrons calling him a 'Democrat' on Fox.

[Ciaphas Cain]

39. Lock her up

None of his flunky children are immune to prosecution. One could be indicted in the near future...

Traditionally that would be a serious problem but who knows with Trump. For all we know might just mock them on Twitter afterwards.

[Polybius]

41. Then we get to see Cruz vs. Beto

This time for President.

[Lokilooney]

42. I never thought he would run for re-election from day one.

He never wanted to be president in the first place, his campaign was just an off the rails exposure run that inexplicable got on the right rail.

[watoos]

46. I agree, he wanted the publicity for Trump Tower-Moscow

and for a Trump News TV outlet.

He waited too long IMO. The day that Mueller got appointed he should have gotten his gastroenterologist doctor to come up with a mystery illness like brain spurs. If he quits now he loses the legal protection the presidency affords him. He had better be sure that Pence will pardon him, but he still has state crimes to deal with.

Either way his criminal empire is in tatters. Who would want to put the name Trump atop a building today? He can't get any loans from reputable banks, he must be fit to be tied, a narcissist that the world is laughing at. I hope his blue pills still work.

[Squinch]

51. Totally agree. One way or another, by March of 19 he's either out

or rendered completely politically (and no doubt physically) impotent.

[earthside]

53. Since the day he slithered into office ...

... I've been saying 1) odds favored him not completing his four years (I favor resignation in disgrace, not impeachment); and 2) that if he managed to survive he wouldn't run again.

This whole Trump 2020 thing is just a tactic to allow his 'campaign' to continue to propagandize and to avoid 'lame duck' status.

[musicblind]

54. Hardcore Republicans are immune to information.

I wish I had your confidence, but I have come to believe a video of Trump organizing a baboon rape party on the dead bodies of murdered children would be dismissed as "no big deal."

The base has lost its damn mind and moderates are being forced out.