...deals Trump has previously broken with the R establishment, so you'll have to lay those out for me if you think there's some lesson that they should have already learned. Trump specifically ran against the R establishment (and won), which is why they hate him as much as do the Dems. With that said, I agree that there's no reason they should trust him (and vice versa).

Unless they're literally going to imprison him, there's no way for anyone to prevent Trump from being a kingmaker, impeached or not, if that's what he wants to be. In fact, an impeached Trump could be more dangerous than a non-impeached Trump. Compare Trump's favorability ratings to Congress', and you'll see the outlines of the playing field.

I'm working under the following premise:

The most important factor for both the R's and Trump is self-preservation. For the R's that means retaining as much power as possible, which means retaining Trump's base. For Trump, that means mitigating the extra-legal onslaught this is coming his way, especially that related to his businesses and his family, which means gathering support from as many allies as possible even if those "allies" are really just enemies of his enemies.

I think the R's and Trump can find ways to work together that's mutually beneficial and which ultimately incentivize Trump not to run again or (worse) go third-party. If the R's instead go after Trump, they will be creating their own destructor, so to speak.


[Post edited by Los Angeles Hoo at 01/23/2021 3:21PM]