TrumpTV

Friend of mine contends that Donald Trump never intended to win this election. The whole thing was just an elaborate publicity scheme to rocket-launch his new TrumpTV channel, which will outfox Fox.

It'll be "Breitbart conspiracy theory / Alex Jones conspiracy theory / birther / Hillary is the Devil / firearms for everybody / global warming is a hoax / White homeland / Supreme Court is rigged" nutcase spew 24x7, and it'll take the public dialog even further off the rails of reality. Klansmen and skinheads everywhere will find a voice, and like the TV in the movie "Idiocracy," shows like "Ow My Balls!" will rule the airwaves.

Suggested advertisers: White Castle. White Westinghouse. White Pages. Oxyclean. Hobby Lobby. Dinosaur Encounter. Ark Encounter.

Like your friend, I never thought that Trump expected to win the primary, much less the general election. He just enjoys getting his face out there and believes that it increases the worth of his name (the leasing of which is one of the major sources of his income).

I am still not convinced that he won't drop out. I'm not sure his ego will allow him to see it through when he finally accepts that he is going to lose big time.

The interesting point is what happens if he does drop out. It's too late for the Republican Party to run another candidate. What would happen - and this is just theoretical - if Trump dropped out but received the majority of electoral votes anyway? We would have no President? Mike Pence would be President?

There have been serious discussions about what would happen.

CNBC News wrote:

Nevertheless, there is a procedure in place should Trump withdraw.

Rule 9 of the Republican National Committee rules governs "Filling Vacancies in Nominations," and stipulates that should the party's presidential or vice presidential candidate leave the ticket for whatever reason, the hole may be filled either by a reconvening of the national convention or by the party committee itself. The vice presidential nominee is not given any preferential consideration.

Should the committee elect to fill the vacancy — a seemingly more likely scenario given the logistics involved in organizing a second convention — Republican National Committee members representing a given state are entitled to cast the same number of votes as that state was entitled to at the convention. If the RNC members from any state are not in agreement about casting of their votes, the votes of that state are divided equally among members of the RNC voting.

The final stipulation of the rule is that no candidate may be chosen to fill a vacancy except by receiving a majority of the votes entitled to be cast in the RNC election.

The Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Likely candidates include Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio.  The problem is, this close to the election, none of the ballots would show these guys as options.  And Mail-in voters are already voting -- what would happen to their ballots?  Uncharted territory.

Of course that's no guarantee he wouldn't do it, just to throw a monkey wrench into the American election (and to please his Russian handlers).

The Republican Party does not have any say in the matter at this point. Law does not allow them to simply substitute someone else to receive Trump's votes.

I shipped this question off to a Political Science professor.

_Howard wrote:

The Republican Party does not have any say in the matter at this point.

I believe Rule 9 says otherwise.

Listen. Trump is the candidate of the Republican Party. He is running as their representative. They could, theoretically at least, replace him at any time. It is the party -- not the candidate -- who is in charge here.

Ask your poly-sci friend. She will concur.

Yes, but votes that have been cast for Trump cannot be counted for his replacement. That's what she means, I think.

NoCoPilot wrote:

_Howard wrote:

The Republican Party does not have any say in the matter at this point.

I believe Rule 9 says otherwise.

But that is Rule 9 of the Republican Party. It is not the law.

Ask the professor. It'll be interesting to see if I'm right.

You're right about the meaning of Rule 9. But Rule 9 is NOT A LAW!

And I'm sure what I said is true. People who vote for Trump vote for Trump. Their votes can't be counted as being for his replacement.

Well, there's the point: there will not be a replacement for Trump. There are statutory limits on when a name must be submitted for the ballot. That time has passed. Maybe the Republicans will have a replacement in mind, but that has no legal bearing. The election will go forward with the current ballots, regardless of what Trump does. My hypothetical question asks what happens after the election.

Well that's easy.

If Trump loses, he runs TrumpTV like Fox on steroids, becoming the leading voice for white supremacy, denouncing Republicans and Democrats alike, and inciting hate and violence at every turn. Everybody pretends he is protected by the constitution, until he slips and openly suggests that President Clinton should be assassinated, at which point the Feds shut him down and lock him up. And then some nut shoots Hillary.

If Trump wins, he flounders through the first month or so of his presidency, at which point the Republicans find an excuse to impeach him and put Pence in his place. They struggle to carry out this action, though, because the Democrats realize that Pence is, if anything, even worse than Trump, and don't cooperate. However, they do manage it, and Pence effectively turns the US into a theocratic police state. We all leave.

richard09 wrote:

People who vote for Trump vote for Trump. Their votes can't be counted as being for his replacement.

I'm not saying replacing their candidate would be popular.

But I believe it's within their "rights" as it were.

It is not the right of the Republican Party to change the ballots. After they have selected a candidate and placed him on the ballot, they have no more say in the matter.

Richard,
I think you are very close on what Trump will do. I have always believed that the only reason he got into this was to enrich himself. But the question I posed was what happens electorally: who will be President if Trump drops out but gets the majority of the electoral votes? How will it be determined who will be the president?

I think if he accidentally wins, he will change his mind and actually go to the White House.

If he officially withdraws from the race, then he would not actually be elected and wouldn't have the option to change his mind and take the job. That's the situation I am interested in.

You really shouldn't worry about Trump winning.  Although he's within single digits in most polls, in the Electoral College -- which as you know is the only place that matters -- he has essentially no chance of winning.

Quote :

The math is becoming truly daunting for Trump. In our current outlook, which is just a snapshot of the current state of play and not a projection of what will happen on November 8, the states solidly in Clinton's corner or leaning in her direction add up to 307 electoral votes -- well above the required 270 to win the White House. Trump's got 179 electoral votes either solidly or leaning his way.

Source

I wish Jenni would log in and tell us how things are down where she is. Poor girl must be surrounded by Trumplodytes.

"I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election, if I win."
-Donald Trump

Trump doesn't have a lot of experience losing. He tends to change the rules if it looks like he's behind.

We'll see what excuses / fireworks he comes up with on the 9th.

Let's hope he can control his skinhead Nazi followers.