General Discussion

when TFG finally kicks the bucket putting out all of the resulting fires to truly engage in Machiavelian plots himself.

At some point, Trump will stumble and fall. Perhaps it will be health-related, perhaps it will be the Democrats retaking Congress, perhaps it will be one outrage too far or an assassin's bullet, but he will not make it to 2028.

At that point, all of the chaos that Trump has unleashed is going to finally descend upon the White House. Vance does not have the keys to the secret blackmail files, and he won't receive them - Trump will take THOSE to his grave. Without those files (in the loosest sense of the word), Vance has no power. He has some money, but nowhere near enough by himself to spend it like water like Trump does. He has no real leverage. He lacks the bolder-than-brass charisma that Trump has, and is seen as being too effete by the hardcore MAGA. He is a Catholic, making him immediately suspect to the fundamentalists, and he will be under investigation from the moment he take office to figure out where exactly all the money that Trump stole went. He's not even terribly well liked by those of his generation.

Without Trump, MAGA falls apart. It's already disintegrating. Those who have ridden the MAGA train will do everything they can do distance themselves from it, especially as hard questions get asked. We're already in a recession, one that will only get worse, and businesses that were cowed into compliance will do everything they can to bury their involvement in the interregnum.

Personally, I think we're in a Weekend with Bernie scenario, where an increasingly unstable Trump is being propped up any way his handlers can manage, and where he physically withdraws from interacting with people altogether. I don't believe Vance will 25/4 Trump - he knows the sh*tstorm that will be unleashed once Trump is out of power (or dead), so he, Miller and Thiel will do everything they can to keep him propped up, even if they have to move his dead hand to sign executive orders.