President Vance

[Pancake]

If I understand correctly, in the event Trump becomes incapacitated or impeached, the Vice President automatically becomes president. However there is a lot I don’t know beyond that. Does he remain president for the duration of the term and if so does that mean he can only serve one more? What about the party? Can they remove him or did they effectively agree to this by endorsing him as Trump’s running mate and VP?

More importantly, what are likely to be the changes under Vance? And what is likely to remain the same? I know very little about him other than jokes and memes. He doesn’t strike me as the type maga would follow. Although he might be equally influenced by those with power or money, he just doesn’t strike me as influential enough that anyone would bother building a brand around him. He might be a yes man to the same powers and policies driving Trump, but without the charisma or followers or brand does he even fill the useful idiot model?

If he finishes the term, do you think the party will run him again or is there a new presidential candidate in the wings. Will they continue on and try to squeeze every bit of link back to Trump to try to get 4 more years or do they pivot, publicly anyway, and present him as a more moderate and rational and palatable version of Trump with the same foundational platform?

Or does he in fact have an agenda and plan of his own that is even worse and has just been biding his time?

Trump seems to dominate all the news so I genuinely don’t know what Vance is like other than a yes man so I have no real sense of what he will be like without Trump.

Edit to add What does the US and the world look like under President Vance?

 

[Veritable Quandry]

If the President is removed from office, the Vice President serves the remainder of their term. It is based on position, so the Republicans can't change it. The third in line is the Speaker of the House, so now it's Johnson. But in January that will likely he Jefferies. During Watergate, Spiro Agnew was Vice President but due to an unrelated scandal he resigned before Nixon. Ford became the first person appointed to the office of Vice President: before the 25th Amendment there was no mechanism to fill the position except by election.

If that is less than two years, the former Vice President can be elected to two more full terms. If it more than two years, they may only be elected to one full term.

At the moment, we are seeing Trump himself losing his grip on the Republican Party. Vance would be much weaker. He has techbro financial support, but that does not get him automatic access to Trump's grassroots supporters. He does not have the charisma to pick up those people, especially the people who only turn out to vote when Trump is on the ballot. He is too Catholic to get 100% of the Evangelical support, even if he spars with the Pope. When Trump is gone, this whole coalition will turn in on itself. If he were removed either through impeachment or the 25th Amendment for competency, Trump would throw spanners in the works for whoever takes over. So the overall agenda may not change, but the ability to do anything effective will get worse (as bad as it is now).

They will not run him again, no matter what he says. Teasing a third run is holding back potential candidates who don't want to piss him off. Vance and Rubio are the most likely candidates, possible on a shared ticket but not clear who get to be the top.

 

[Khamon]

Vance will be impossible for Chancellor Lord Vought and Vice-Chancellor Miller to control. He will not last long.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Vance will be impossible for Chancellor Lord Vought and Vice-Chancellor Miller to control. He will not last long.

Putin likes him though.

 

[Pancake]

Everything I read about him is immediately followed by a but. He is a decorated marine, but served as journalist and public relations. He graduated from law school, but worked for venture capitalist. He was critical of Trump, but became his running mate. He converted to Catholicism but has a tenuous grasp on that and strained relationship with the Pope.

He clearly blows with the wind but I can’t figure out if it’s because he is so weak that the wind easily makes him flip or if he’s sly and strategically shifting as needed to benefit himself.

 

[Free]

The man can't even settle on what his own name is.

 

[Noodles]

Also on succession, if something happened to both Trump and Vance, then it goes to Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. However, Mike Johnson is not automatically Vance's VP, I beleive if Vance becomes President, Vance simply, selects the new VP.

On what changes.

My conspiracy angle. They want to hold out on Trump until Jan at the 2 year mark, then the TechnoChristofascist Branch (which Vance is part of) will almost immmidiatrly turn on Trump. I don't expect Trump to be President by Feb, either his health fails, or they impeach and kick him out.

Vance steps in, maybe turns a few things to try to curry favor with people, especially MAGA, a bit. But he will be worse.

Trump first term was all about grifting and ego. Trump 2 was basically "You are electible by the Nazi Cult, so we will run you again, and keep you out of jail, don'tbworry, unlike 2020, we have Musk to help "fix shit".

Vance, he is part of the real threat, the Heritage Foundation and all the Musk/Thiel assholes. They will push Vance through for 2 more terms while running ripshod over everyone and everything.

 

[Pancake]

The man can't even settle on what his own name is.

I was reading about that. The empathetic part of me feels for him with such a difficult childhood, poverty, single mother with opioid addiction, raised by grandparents for a time, adopted by mothers later husband and the name changes that went with that. However very little after his childhood supports my initial reaction.

 

[Free]

Vance is a chameleon, specifically regarding how he once represented himself, both socially and politically, compared to his staunch MAGA positions these days.

A Yale law school classmate of his who's transgender, says he told them he didn't understand what they were going through, but supported them and their decision to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Which doesn't in any way reflect his current views and statements on transgender rights now.

A key example of his mutable principles is his "never Trump guy" positioning from his 2016 memoir, to becoming his running mate in 2024. Quite a significant change of support for the man Vance wondered was "America's Hitler."

 

[Innula Zenovka]

He's a creature of Peter Thiel. In as much as any leading Republicans now have any political principles other than their own advancement and enrichment, he's on the isolationist, MAGA, wing of the Republicans, suspicious of Israel and NATO, while Marco Rubio is more of a neo-conservative interventionist, and supportive of Israel and NATO.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I agree with much of what was said here. Vance is A LOT smarter than Trump and more connected to reality but not necessarily any more principled or moral. This is a dangerous combination. My biggest hope is just that he doesn't have the "cult charisma" Trump does for getting away with so many crimes.

 

[detrius]

Vance is a chameleon, specifically regarding how he once represented himself, both socially and politically, compared to his staunch MAGA positions these days.

A Yale law school classmate of his who's transgender, says he told them he didn't understand what they were going through, but supported them and their decision to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Which doesn't in any way reflect his current views and statements on transgender rights now.

A key example of his mutable principles is his "never Trump guy" positioning from his 2016 memoir, to becoming his running mate in 2024. Quite a significant change of support for the man Vance wondered was "America's Hitler."

And don't forget his beard.

 

[Cristiano]

So Vance is the tofu of politicians. He has no true north. He is whoever those around him want him to be. He is a handpuppet of Peter Thiel and the techbroligarchy. That does make him dangerous. He has the charisma of a dead rat.

He is intelligent, certainly, but a big problem for him is there is no way he is the heir apparent for MAGA. They tolerate him, but it is a cult of personality. No one is afraid of him the way they are Trump. Once Trump is out, the cult collapses quickly.

 

[detrius]

He is intelligent, certainly[...]

I don't think so. He just looks smart by comparison because he's surrounded by people who would eat boxes of crayons if left unsupervised.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I don't think so. He just looks smart by comparison because he's surrounded by people who would eat boxes of crayons if left unsupervised.

I think he's cognitively normal. Not a genus, but not impaired like many of those around him. He's a very good liar when he needs to be....

 

[Casey Pelous]

When I saw the title of this thread pop up in the new stuff, I thought, "It's happened!" followed immediately by, "Oh, god ... now what .....?"

I'm so tired of living in dread.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

However, Mike Johnson is not automatically Vance's VP, I beleive if Vance becomes President, Vance simply, selects the new VP.

Under the 25th Amendment, the President picks the VP and then both houses of Congress have to vote to affirm the position. Ford was the ranking minority leader in the House when Nixon tapped him to become VP.

 

[Free]

When I saw the title of this thread pop up in the new stuff, I thought, "It's happened!" followed immediately by, "Oh, god ... now what .....?"

The last time Pancake posted using a predictive post title... (Come on, she didn't even post this one as a question!)

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

So Vance is the tofu of politicians. He has no true north. He is whoever those around him want him to be. He is a handpuppet of Peter Thiel and the techbroligarchy. That does make him dangerous. He has the charisma of a dead rat.

In short he's the Manchurian candidate!

Everything I read about him is immediately followed by a but. He is a decorated marine, but served as journalist and public relations. He graduated from law school, but worked for venture capitalist. He was critical of Trump, but became his running mate. He converted to Catholicism but has a tenuous grasp on that and strained relationship with the Pope.

I don't see a divide here with law: venture capitalists have big law departments. They love to sue others, and expect to get sued a lot. Which makes them needing lawyers a lot.

Also law is the typical academic career you can use to get a hold into almost any company with big paychecks and having no real clue.

 

[Pancake]

The last time Pancake posted using a predictive post title... (Come on, she didn't even post this one as a question!)

I was thinking about that just after I posted but didn’t want to bring it up. It’s likely to happen at some point, but I don’t want credit for it happening lol