What is likely to happen when/if trump dies?
5 months ago by _j_ to c/nostupidquestions
It must surely be imminent. He's not in the best health if the reports about him eating mcdonalds all the time are true. He's 79 which isn't that old but I dont see many fat, stressed 90 year olds on a mcdonalds diet.
Say he had a heart attack next week.. then what? Presumably Vance would take over as actual president, but I can't imagine anyone being as bad as him. Would the maga movement continue with a different cult leader? Do you think things would meaningfully change?
Trump dying fixes nothing.
Well, it could potentially fracture their party between different figures vying to be the next Trump. That's the only thing it could fix.
The fascists will still be there, you’re absolutely right. However, do not undercut the cult of personality. People not under the spell, can’t/won't see it but all of this is built off his “charisma”. Their momentum will absolutely falter when he’s no longer around.
Once it happens, we cannot allow for elected members to talk about “coming together” and “moving forward”. These ghouls must be held accountable.
The individual you're replying to may be sincere, but a shill trying to demoralize us would say the exact same thing. If a scary message doesn't end in a call to action, it's not helpful.
Lol. I answered op's question. Here's your CTA. Go fix your shit or die trying.
I personally know more than a couple trumpers who are now fully cultists and will eat whatever right wing media feeds them. As long as there are consistent right wing propagandists, there will be the cult of maga. They will continue on supporting fascism and hurting others.
Agreed, perhaps I'm just not as hopeful in the damage the cult suffers in this circumstance. It would have been damaging in an election. Things are moving fast now and still accelerating. There might not be another election, then losing Dear Leader doesn't mean much. Fascists use fear and violence to control opposing groups in populations, not democratic consent to legitimize themselves.
The plans won't stop, but the cult of personality definitely will
At this point, it should be clear to everyone that Trump is a symptom, he is not the disease.
Agreed, but that doesn't mean I won't celebrate it.
But then the death squads will come after you if you do.
It's a bit of both. He is uniquely good at allowing people to feel like their narcissism is righteous. He's the best at it since Hitler. JD's no neo-hitler.
That's true, but if you pop this particular pustule it's not clear how long it would take for another to emerge - perhaps hears or decades. In which time there's a chance you could at least partially address the underlying health issues.
It'd probably be best if Pete Thiel just died also. That would be pretty cool.
Just make it "all billionaires", just to be sure.
we'll have a theilocracy
It's extremely rare for a cult to survive the death of its leader.
The only one I know of is Scientology.
Vance would become POTUS, but he won't be able to keep MAGA united. Remember, Rump is miraculously keeping both pro Israel Zionists and anti-Semitic Neo-Nazis together on the same team. As well as others who would be natural enemies. MAGA will collapse. Vance'll almost certainly loose in '28.
This is my take.
Trump's death won't change the shitty people who have elected and continue to support him, but those people will no longer have a focal point.
Among all his shitty traits, he does have the uncanny ability to engender support from shitty people in a way that no one else can emulate.
Vance will be POTUS. He will reverse course on Trump's dumbassery... withdraw from Iran, hose down Hormuz, water down the tariffs et cetera. He will try to win support from the great unwashed and the oligarchy but will ultimately fail.
I think Vance’s response depends greatly on if he takes direction from his handlers in Heritage Foundation or if he gains an ego and believes he’s the new cult leader. They learned their lesson with Pence who, with the obligatory “fuck Mike Pence”, still wasn’t invested enough to commit treason.
Vance just doesn’t have the twisted charisma Trump has to be the cult guy. Heritage knows it, but they knew he had a shelf-life and only needed to get in and secure their position. The Third Reich didn’t survive Hitler but he wouldn’t let go (and they couldn’t get rid of him) until it was too late. The Soviet Union survived the death of Stalin because nobody after him tried to recreate his larger than life image, they maintained the control that was established under his reign.
If Vance does what he’s told he doesn’t need to be Trump, and if the regime continues to disregard democracy, the courts, and even declining public opinion among conservatives that rode the wave but are now leopard fodder, they don’t need another Trump, just an institution to defend. These fuckers are embedded and will be difficult to remove.
I think Scientology outlasted Hubbard because the basis of the cult is to constantly collect blackmail on the members through assessments which makes it hard to leave without your dirty secrets getting released and every person in your life cutting you off.
Anyone heard from his wife in the last decade or so?
Heard she was road tripping with Jimmy Hoffa and D.B. Cooper.
Every religion currently operating is a cult that survived the death of its leader.
A handful maybe.
Most grew organically from collections of myths, stories, and traditions.
Greek, Nordic, Egyptian, Hindi, Jewish, Wicca, Vodou, Zoroastrian, even Christian, each started as loose regional folktales. They took shape and coalesced over generations.
I'm throwing a big friggin party
I'm going to be so drunk
I heard something very fascinating on pod save America this morning: the Maga cultists don’t follow Trump because they worship Trump the person, they follow Trump because they believe the same things that Trump believes. If some other leader spewed the exact same things, they would follow that person, too. that’s not JD Vance. That’s not anyone right now. Everyone in the Trump administration is very much after their own interests and only kiss Trump‘s ass because they’re afraid of the consequences if they don’t.
Really, this is a huge problem for the Republican Party, as, post-Trump, all of the Maga cultists would probably break away from the Republican Party and possibly dissolve into a disorganized slurry of right wing crazy. This would leave the Republican Party massively weekend as a result, and most of the independents that voted for Trump in the last election would likely defect to the Democrats.
Trump has built a "broad tent" with support from a lot of different demographics.
I suppose I agree that MAGA cultists support him because they believe the same things. I think it's more apt to describe it as Trump gives them permission to indulge their shitty beliefs, but I guess that's the same.
No, things would not change. Republicans would still control the Supreme Court. Over the last couple of years they learned that they can get away with anything: breaking any laws they want, straight out stealing money, building concentration camps, sending gestapo to murder people... They will not stop doing this only because Trump is dead.
Who exactly will take over after Trump is impossible to tell. Watch The Death of Stalin by Iannucci. This is exactly what will happen. A lot of infighting and backstabbing until new king of MAGA is crowned.
Watch The Death of Stalin by Iannucci
i have been watching this every year with hope
One of the interesting things to consider is the timing. He's been bleeding popularity the whole time but death has a way of buffing up your reputation. If enough people turn against him before he dies, he becomes broadly a villain. If he dies tomorrow, there's still a huge number of people who will think of him as a martyred saint.
I admit that I've never truly understood martyrdom, but I think it's notable that Trump would get thrown under a thousand busses.
He's objectively directly responsible for a whole lot of bad stuff. Right now no one wants to blame him for anything because he's a petulant toddler happy to wield the worlds largest economy and armed forces against you if he feels your grovelling is insufficient.
However, as soon as he's gone I imagine that dynamic will change dramatically. What's the benefit of sucking up to someone who can no longer shit in your cornflakes?
Instead the opposite is true - his successors will be heavily motivated to blame everything on Trump.
Yes. Even if it is useless, but they will for sure.
Vance would accuse Democrats of assassination and impletement martial law and arrest Democrats
It doesn't matter even if it's a heart attack
The Portuguese way look suitable: his chair breaks and he hits his head
I actually got a book that disputes that narrative, arguing that it was likely something even more embarrassing like him falling inside his bathroom, due to the fact that apparently the killer chair was never found, that there are conflicting stories, and weirdly inconsistent testimonies Edit: went to see the Wikipedia article, they do have this dispute mentioned. Fun
For legal reasons: I want to be clear I do not wish death upon anyone...
But I do wonder what it would look like if a politician choked on a burger and died...
Like imagine how absurd it would be if it happened on live tv
For moral reasons, I want to be clear. I DO wish death upon trump.
I'm not going to be the guy that causes it, but I will happily celebrate that day HARD!
if it happened on live tv
Nah, the beeper people are quick enough not to let this be seen.
I came across a catchy turn of phrase recently that I think would be perfect here. I'm hoping that, in the midst of one of his big public speeches, he shits himself inside-out. That would be the perfect end for his story.
He needs to pull a hey man nice shot. On live t.v.
How about falling into a volcano? Or better yet, post a sign that says "Danger! Volcano ahead!" to which he intentionally disregards, and jumps in!
Vance is smarter than Trump, less driven by his own impulses, and more directly under the control of Thiel
He doesn’t have the cult of personality Trump does, but if/when you’ve rigged the elections so you’ll always win, what does that matter?
Vance makes NO decisions on his own, he is ENTIRELY owned by Peter Theil. If Vance becomes president, Peter Theil is in charge.
The streets will flood with piss wherever they dump his bloated corpse.
Don't forget to eat lots of asparagus!
MAGA is a classic Cult of Personality, and Trump's death will be the end. Like all Dictators, he won't name a successor because he doesn't want to give any power to anyone else, so he'll let Rubio and Vance fight it out for his own entertainment.
Meanwhile there are a bunch of MAGA losers entertaining the fantasy of taking over MAGA when Trump dies. Guys like Don Jr. You don't think he feels like he's ENTITLED to succeed his father to the throne? Or Hegseth? Or Lindsey Graham? Or DeSantis? Or Abbot? Or Tucker Carlson?
When Trump assumes room temperature, the knives are going to come out, and the backstabbing will begin. It will be glorious.
Dems should know this is coming upon Trump's inevitable death, and understand that it will be a unique golden moment for them. They better be ready to take full advantage of that opportunity with a plan in place to deploy when it happens.
I disagree with your "he won't name a successor". He will name 6, one of whom will be his yet to be announced IVF child with Laura Loomer. They will fight and claw for dominance and 65 years later they'll make a dark comedy holofilm about the infighting after Krasnov's death.
I disagree. He won't choose an uggo like Loomer. Even plastic surgery couldn't help her. She may be down for blowjays on command, but he won't want to breed with her. These MAGAs are closet eugenicists, even though Trump has never heard that word, but he knows about plantation owners breeding their slaves, so he understands how it works.
Stephen "PeeWee Himmler" Miller will tell him that he wants someone with good genes, although Trump will think PeeWee said "Good Jeans," and think it means a chick with a good ass, and he'll demand, "Get me a 12 year old with a hot ass!" and the entire US government will be tasked to find a pretty child for him to rape and impregnate, for the good of the nation.
Hopefully, before any of that happens, he'll just stroke out in the middle of a dumb speech, accompanied by a confused facial expression, a hilarious vocal noise, and a loud wet fart.
When that happens, put me down for $50 on MAGA Cloning Program in the betting pool.
see i thought they picked Loomer as their next ... i can't even think of the word it's so heinous. not breeder, not incubator just living womb. like, years ago. and then the dementia set in and that's the only reason she keeps buzzing around.
We get couch fucker who is a Peter “I can see the Antichrist “ Theil bitch boy.
There is a long list of politicians who have tried to do the Trump thing ever since the stupid escalator. Florida Governor DeSantis made a tiny little bit of headway that ultimately collapsed around him, Marge Greene has been setting herself up as the post-Maga maga leader, and Ted Cruz of Texas has been trying for the longest time to position himself as heir apparent of the current GOP, but there hasn't been anyone who has been able to capture the same spectrum of blind devotion to grudging acceptance that Donald Trump has somehow managed to unite into the Maga movement.
JD Vance certainly isn't it, and while he'll certainly get the Oval Office when Trump dies before completing his term, I think his presidency will be fairly unremarkable and rather short, and afterwards he'll move into private equity consulting or some such and never be seen in politics again.
But without Joe Rogan and Charlie Kirk, and with a ton of the other influencers either jumping ship or losing face, I don't think we'll see the same focus on a single candidate again. Since 2016, we've had a historical alignment of domestic influence and foreign interference that focused on Trump specifically, and he has used that (as he always does) to build the Trump brand and only the Trump brand. Nobody else can use it; not even Don Jr., who has tried dipping his toes in and mostly been ignored.
So I think the answer is, the maga cult sputters and dies. Maybe it sticks around long enough to poison the waters for a couple more election cycles, but it won't elect another president. The best case scenario, in my mind, would be maga breaking away from the GOP and trying to field candidates for a few years that become spoilers.
Either way, the Republicans will eventually put the mask back on and try to pretend like nothing ever happened (though I can't possibly predict whether that'll work. My gut says yes, but maybe that's just me being cynical).
Maybe it sticks around long enough to poison the waters for a couple more election cycles
This is kind of my best case scenario for the cult. Stick around and try their own thing, which results in siphoning votes from the Republican party.
the Republicans will eventually put the mask back on and try to pretend like nothing ever happened (though I can’t possibly predict whether that’ll work)
Oh it'll work. After Bush Jr. Republicans pulled a "Who? Oh I didn't know him that well". Then they got a fascist elected. Their base has hamster brains. This whole ordeal should have buried the Republican party in a deep unmarked grave. But it won't.
OMG wouldn't that be an interesting outcome. MAGA splits from GOP, taking voters. Suddenly there is room for an actual left side party instead of whatever Dem is anymore. Would be funny if the death of Trump actually pushed us into having more political parties and some actual representation for the people.
In my opinion, the best case scenario is that that happens, the GOP dies (it happened with the Whigs!) and a new, more progressive party (maybe DemSoc) becomes relevant to the left of the Democrats. The Dems become the new Conservatives (since they basically are anyway) and the left wing becomes the moderate left. The overperformance of Abughazeleh (even though she didn't win) and the shocking effectiveness of Mamdani now that he's in office make this slightly less impossible than it would've seemed even a year ago.
I for one. Will take a few days off work to celebrate like I've never celebrated before, and will make whatever day that is a personal holiday for myself and make sure to take paid vacation every year on that day.
Most likely a mad struggle for power among those in his circle alongside a struggle to be seen as the heir. Vance has an advantage here, but you can see other players making their moves including Greene. Had Kirk been alive he honestly might've been my dark horse bet. But if nobody wins a sufficient coalition then everyone loses. Some of the ideas will remain, but mostly the energized masses return to how they were before him or they'll split into their feuding factions where the San Francisco technofascists and the Midwesterners who hate change and the southerners who just hate everyone different from them are all back at each other's throats and all are disgusted with Nick Fuentes
Vance would become president and at the next election in three years, people would vote again. Vance is an opportunist, he would probably continue trumps policies, tweak them here, cancel some there and try to get reelected; perhaps without daily tweets and erratic behavior… but similarly dangerous; ever since his speech at the MSC, I don’t trust the lil fella with the backpfeifengesicht.
I see Vance as much worse than trump. He is very heavy on religion and pro force religion on to people
And, potentially worse, he knows how to turn the crazy off during a public appearance when he needs to.
Gesundheit
I'll go into the nearest pub and buy everyone a round.
Things are likely to stay pretty shitty as Trump is a symptom rather than an underlying cause, but we've had precious little to celebrate.
Everyone will buy everyone a round, everyone shit faced and all broke even lol
I will celebrate so hard
I’m gonna get scolded for how much of a raging party throw
Vance would get his chance to meet Putin personally (and finally learn to kneel before him).
We'd get Vance, who is arguably worse. Seriously. Look into the guy. He's a freakshow, but more subtle than Trump. Still very stupid though, so we'd still be led by a stupid extremist.
The cult as we know it would end though. Vance isn't going to be able to take over as cult leader. He doesn't have the flamboyant bigotry that Trump does, which is what draws low IQ conservatives to him like he's some idol.
Doesn't matter. I've witnessed conservatives all my life. With Trump gone, they'll absolutely vote for the next shitstain racist/fascist/bigot/moron the Republican party hands them. Because they will never, under any circumstances, vote blue. And they'll never vote 3rd party cuz they won't want to risk baby eating Democrats gaining power. So they'll bite their tongues and vote for whatever Republican is on the menu. And now that Trump has opened Pandora's Box, we're just going to see worse and worse candidates from Republicans because they watched and saw what Trump was able to get away with, so they'll take advantage, because why wouldn't they? They'll want their turn to grift the presidency to create their own dynasty.
I don't want to make a Monday even shittier than it already is, but realistically, things are probably going to get worse, not better, even with Trump gone. But hey, at least we won't have to hear his fucking voice anymore or wake up wondering what monumentally stupid thing he's said or done every fucking day.
Less grammar mistakes.
Satan keeps his people alive. He has more energy than most 40 year olds.
79 is not that old? Most people dont live to be 85. So yeah, its pretty old... The average age of death for males in America is 76 years old. Only 1 in 10 males reaches 90.
You mean after the biggest party ever?
If they can martyrdom him, they will. Otherwise, expect that they'll be selling merchandise and photo ops if they can.
Someone hose-off Gary Busey.
or Ted Nugent.
If Trump does this pedofile demon is your new president
Huh? Why?
Oh JD
My practical experience with people with anti social personality disorder rarely feel stress, they thrive doing constant power games and destroying lives. So I doubt he's stressed.
When he dies I'll fucking rejoice. Other than that I dunno
My theory is they'll treat him like some kind of political deity like Regan. Regan died and they wouldn't stop talking about him like political Jesus until trump came along. At one point during the rnc convention they wanted to bring a hologram Regan on stage "think like hologram 2pac but Regan" but they thought the hologram would showboat Romney at the time.
Vance would name a vice president and judging by vance I bet it would be a bush jr chenney type situation although I have no idea who it would be.
Nothing would change. It should be obvious that Trump isn't the one making the decisions and neither would be JD Vance.
I wouldn't even be surprised if there was little attention being given to a funeral. Just as a show of power of how disposable the figure heads are.
They could go the way of a leadership cult they have in north korea, where btw, the title of kim il sung is still technically, officially head of state, even though he's dead. They simply invented a new position and keep him as eternal big leader. + something with christian nationalism, like "trump is watching over you guys from heaven".
Maybe I'm too pessimistic too, we'll see if "they" will allow the mid term elections to take place or how that will go down.
It should be obvious that Trump isn't the one making the decisions
Oh yes, for about 3-400 of the less important daily decisions, he is 😉
The biggest party in history, and he can't go
That may just be a display of power. Either that or he really likes fast food.
The immediate thing that would happen would be spontaneous dancing in the streets.
But to the point of your question, I see things splitting in the following ways:
RFK jr health grifter faction
JD Vance silicon valley faction
Fuentes/Owens antisemitism faction
I think there is going to be real right-wing schism over isreal. RFK jr is a boomer and will back isreal out of conditioning, the SV tech industry is in deep with the isreali MIC, and young republicans are motivated foremost by racism/mysogyny/anti-semitism.
It won't make things better all on its own. The things that enable and create him are still around. I mean, unless there was like a plane with a whole lot of republicans and billionaires all together and it went down in a fiery crash with no survivors. That might make a big enough vacuum for change.
I think it will result in a short-term improvement, though - they won't have a dotard Great Leader with only completely subservient yes-men surrounding him. Whoever replaces him will still be an intensely selfish and self-interested person, of course, but at least they'll be sane enough to understand that their self-interest isn't best served by randomly launching wars like the Iran debacle.
It'll give the rest of the world a bit more breathing room and time to divest themselves from the US more effectively. So when the next Trump comes along he'll have less power.
When I get one of his new coins I'm going to glue it to the bottom of the toilet so everyone will pee on him. I heard he likes that.
C'mon, spell ICUP!
come on out armchair historians!
Jessica Foster will take over. Semper Fudge.
Unfortunately, he won't:
that prophecy in the Christian bible's Rev 13, the one about the "miraculous cure", meant him.
You'll see in March/April of this year ( 2026 ).
When he does die, about 7/2y after turning absolute-dictator, he'll be replaced by either Musk, Kushner, or some equivalent, possibly Miller or Hegseth or one of the other cronies.
Things are about to get bad.
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Trump is the disposable useful idiot to be the fall guy if the fascist coup fails. Everyone will pretend to sober up with their "it wasn't us, it was him and we tried to fight it from the inside, but he was just too powerful." story. These lines are well rehearsed.
The fascist party is still fully present and accounted for, and are learning to exercise their newfound powers with alarming speed. Trump dying fixes nothing. They lose a figurehead, and the idiot fallguy. Their plans don't stop. If anything they accelerate and intensify because their big escape clause just disapeared and the cost of failure goes up.
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