Periodically, we read about the TrumpKids pondering whether or not to run for public office, which usually tends to translate as "the Senate," because...well, yeah, whatever. Mostly, it's been Ivanka ruminating about Florida, Though daughter-in-law Lara Lea Trump gets mentioned a bit for North Carolina. And even Junior gets his named bandied about -- though for where isn't certain, perhaps Mars. I am not convinced that any of them will run. Mind you, I don't dismiss it as possible, but given their sense of self importance and what daddy did, I'd think anything less than president would be a step down and probably has less interest for them -- not only because of the lower prestige of "not president" and because any elected office other than president means they'd have to deal with many "equals" and be reliant on others, but also they couldn't hide from work like they saw their daddy (or daddy-in-law) do as president. After all, a president has a massive staff and departments and agencies and even actual armed forces at his disposal doing the bulk of the work.. If a president is incredibly lazy and incompetent (see: "daddy"), he get can away with playing golf all the time, even if it means the country's economy crashes, its world standing gets pummeled and 500,000 Americans die. The business of his office will continue, since everyone else there has a job to do. And "there" means pretty much everyone. And "a job to do" may mean screw things up. On the other hand, if you're a U.S. Senator, you have an actual job to do, even if it's just answering the phone from constituents. Yes, you have a staff, but the budget is small and so is the number of people on the staff. You don't have departments, agencies, a military or national treasury to work with. If you don't do your job, it doesn't get done. Now, of course, you can be really bad at your job, it's still entirely up to you, 100%. The good news is that you have a job for six years. The bad news is that you would have to do the job for six years. And it's not like you can do pretty much anything you want because, like in your current job, it's your own company, and all you have to do is run it by daddy. No, you have to work with 99 other senators. Compromise sometimes. Let others with more seniority, power or ability set the agenda and lead the way. Also, they all may have criminal records soon. At the very least, daddy -- whose aura is the only thing that gives them standing in the party -- may have a criminal record soon. And further, it's possible that the Trump legacy will be profoundly discredited during the next four years from government hearings and investigations, and evidence in other court cases. Not to mention society improving as the pandemic passes, and the economic meltdown improves. And the Republican Party takes on new leadership. I do think it's more likely that any one of these three -- or who knows, any other TrumpKid -- will run for office than daddy will again. But it's still unlikely. Another thing is that if you do run, you don't get anointed -- you actually do have to run and win the party's nomination. And while "Trump" in today's GOP still carries weight for some bizarre reasons, even after the $100 million scamming of donors and the whole, well, y'now, insurrection thing, you still have to run against other Republicans who want the same job and have to debate and campaign and all that. And the thing is, "senator" is really a highly-coveted job with a lot of caché and power. Which means you don't get to sneak through the cracks unnoticed, but people with a lot of drive will go after the same job and do so extremely aggressively, because winning means you get the Golden Ticket. And while in some states, like North Carolina, there would be a Democrat you'd be running against -- if you actually do win the GOP nomination -- in Florida, there are two Republicans already in office, so you'd be trying to defeat an incumbent of your own party. And while that incumbent is Florida is Marco Rubio and deserves to lose his office, it's not something he'd give up lightly. Of the three, Ivanka would seem the most likely to run, but that also would be in the state with two Republican senators already. And it just seems as if she likes the idea of being a senator much more than doing the job of a senator -- which I say from watching her in action the past four years. Lara Lea seems the second most likely, since there would be a Democratic seat at the end of the rainbow, though it's hard to quite see why she thinks she should be a senator, other than by semi-osmosis. Perhaps it's because as a daughter-in-law -- and only of Eric -- she doesn't get the glory of being an actual child of daddy, and this would be a way to get some for herself. The problem is that, as much as she is in the Trump crime family with the Trump name, as a "not actual child of daddy," she doesn't have the same GOP aura in a political race. As for Junior, his daddy issues make it perfectly clear why he would want to be a senator (even if it's not as grand a job as the one daddy had, but maybe he could get there with this as a stepping stone), but he mainly seems to be flailing in the wind trying to figure out what he wants to do and is mostly ruminating about running because it seems like he thinks he's supposed to.. So, yes, it's possible that one or all of the TrumpKids will run for the Senate. But I think it's a long shot that they do. And if they do, winning the GOP nomination is not the guarantee I suspect they think it is. And then there's the general race. And while some states might be winnable for any Republican, whoever they are, a TrumpKid might be running while carrying so much extra baggage that it exceeds the airlines' allowance. Hey, who knows?, maybe that's why they want to run. Not enough allowance. Yes, yes, I know, unfortunately no experience is necessary to run for the Senate. The problem is that we saw what a disaster that is when it ends up in the White House.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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