A fleeting and very far-fetched, if still disturbing, thought--Vice President Ivanka?
Yesterday, Donald Trump declared his residency in Florida, transferring it from his birthplace and familiar stomping grounds of New York.
Almost certainly this was done for purposes of taxes and assets--Florida has homestead protection, which both offers tax benefits and protections from seizure in civil judgments for one's primary residence. This might actually be a great sign for us, as it indicates Trump is worried about certain legal implications that might arise post-presidency.
However, I couldn't help but briefly entertain an ulterior motive for this action. The 12th Amendment states that in order to be eligible for the full slate of electoral votes, a candidate for President and a candidate for Vice President must be from separate states. Technically, a ticket can feature two candidates from the same state, but they would forfeit any chance at electoral votes from their home state.
Now, it's unlikely that New York would ever go red any time soon, so the idea of Donald Trump getting any electoral votes from New York is pretty much a fairy tale from the get-go.
Still, favored offspring Ivanka is a resident of New York. Trump has hinted at loving the idea of a Trump dynasty, posting "jokes" about how a Trump will be President for years to come. And he hasn't been shy to let Ivanka in places that would be highly inappropriate for most presidential children to be--such as phone calls with foreign leaders and the leader table at global summits.
The notion of a Trump-Trump ticket would undoubtedly be highly revolting for most Americans, and hopefully would be roundly rejected by all people in the country but the most stringent Trumpists.
But even so, it could offer a certain level of protection for the man if he were to survive to a second term in office.
Note, Trump can't "fire" Mike Pence. If he names a new running mate, Pence would continue to serve as Vice President up until the end of the first term.
But right now, Pence's presence in office serves as weak spot for Trump. As I've said on multiple occasions, despite everyone's best wishes, there will never be a joint Trump-Pence impeachment/removal considering the Senate has a GOP majority. The Senate Republicans would never cede the White House to the Democrats voluntarily like that. However, if things continue to get worse and worse for Donald Trump personally, there might be a possibility that enough GOP Senators might cut bait with Trump alone, knowing that they'd still have Pence in office at least until the end of the term. Pence is their failsafe.
If Trump loses in 2020, it's a moot point. Same goes if he is removed from office, forced to resign, or strokes out and dies.
But if Trump--God forbid--wins re-election, and the makeup of the Senate isn't radically changed, the dynamics change for a second term.
So let's just hypothesize if Donald were to name Ivanka as his running mate and he wins re-election. If he has that KFC induced heart-attack and croaks, there'd still be a President Trump. If the current attempt to impeach and remove Trump from office (or force his resignation) fails, it wouldn't preclude a future impeachment. But if there is still a slim GOP majority in the Senate, or even a slim Democratic majority, the Pence incentive for GOP Senators on the bubble is gone. If one Trump gets impeached and removed, we'd still have another Trump to deal with. And if the House remains in Democratic hands with a Democratic speaker, a two-fer impeachment would be just as impossible then as it is now, because unless they suddenly become super-principled, GOP Senators wouldn't want to cede the White House.
Meaning that Donald and Ivanka could plausibly have a daddy-daughter cross country crime spree and get away with it.
Of course this scenario is so far-fetched I was hesitant to even mention it. But it did briefly cross my mind, and much as I hate to say, if he could get away with it, he could possibly do it.
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