If Trump Is Going to Win Again...
Summary
The American Mind publishes an anonymous suggestion that is almost serious.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), who has an exemplary record, can make a strong case that President Donald Trump proved to be an utterly conventional politician in his failure to control federal spending and Anthony Fauci. But so far Mr. Trump maintains his lead in polls of Republican primary voters. A lot can happen in the next several months but many of Mr. Trump’s critics are getting the queasy feeling that America’s 45th president might also be her 47th.
Now along comes an anonymous author in the Claremont Institute’s American Mind proposing a “half-measure whose time may have come." The author, who seems resigned to a Trump nomination, writes:
Trump could campaign on the explicit promise to step down from office and go back to Mar-a-Lago (or the Fulton County jail) immediately after the expiration of the two-year period referred to in the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, concerning term limits. It states that “no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once."
Translation: If a reelected President Trump steps down on or after January 20, 2027—let’s play it safe and make it on or after January 21, since January 20 won’t be a full day of either president’s term—his VP can serve out the rest of Trump’s term and then go on to his or her own election in 2028 and, thanks to the half-measure, his or her reelection in 2032. That’s 12 years of GOP control of the White House to try to recover from Biden.
Trump could therefore campaign on the promise to resign in midstream—what he could call his “Farewell Promise to the American People."
Some might naturally wonder if such a promise would be kept. The author further explains how Mr. Trump could address the question:
At some point during the campaign in 2024, he could fulfill the “Farewell Promise to the American People," by signing, in a solemn ceremony, his actual resignation letter. The letter, though dated 2024, could state that it is effective at a specified time on January 21, 2027—irrevocably, unconditionally, etc...
To add to the theater, there could be witnesses, a notary public, White House stationery (you just know he has reams of it stashed away), red sealing wax, and additional gold seals (this is Trump, after all). This could be followed by the solemn deposit of the document in a safe within a vault (a distinct upgrade from the conditions alleged in the federal documents case).
“The absurdity of our situation is such that this is something like a serious suggestion," adds the author, who is called “Privata... a pseudonym for someone, academic in nature, who prefers to work in the shadows."
Given the climate of political discourse on many campuses, working in the shadows of academia seems like a sensible course.
Some readers may be thinking that a half-serious proposal for a half-measure from an anonymous author doesn’t exactly scream “authoritative." Fair point, but perhaps there would be a unifying appeal in a 2024 campaign slogan that includes something for everyone:
Trump Back in the White House—but Not for Long!
***
What Would We Do Without Experts?
There is an esteemed school of thought that one must be careful not to apply pressure on children to succeed. Then there is the approach of University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders. He has placed significant responsibility for his success in the hands of his children—one son stars at quarterback, another at safety, and a third runs a social-media operation that is key to Mr. Sanders’s recruiting of players. The formerly hapless Colorado Buffaloes are undergoing the highest-profile makeover in college sports and Mr. Sanders is relying heavily on his kids to pull it off.
It seems that no category of expert opinion is safe when Mr. Sanders is around. In the early days of his Colorado tenure the team has wildly exceeded the expectations of sports pundits—not to mention Las Vegas bookmakers. Conventional wisdom holds that it takes years to build a great football program. Yet Mr. Sanders, known as “Coach Prime," has assembled an almost entirely new team in just one off-season and has started this fall 2-0 after Colorado won one game in all of last year under his predecessor.
Prior to last week’s Colorado victory over rival Nebraska, NFL Hall of Famer John Elway told this column via email that Mr. Sanders had “made all the right moves" in remaking the roster, “which is a great way to start a new era with different attitudes. I’m not sure anybody has dismantled and started anew like Prime has... Players really listen to him even though the mainstream of people question his approach. He keeps winning and that will go away fast!"
Parents may want to take notes as well.
***
Would It Be Easier to Just Report When He Tells the Truth?
Steven Nelson writes for the New York Post:
President Biden told a group of rabbis on Thursday that he was “raised in the synagogues" of Delaware — after previously claiming to have been raised by the state’s then-tiny Puerto Rican community...
Biden’s 2007 memoir “Promises to Keep" doesn’t contain a single use of the word “synagogue"...
Biden in 2021 told Jewish leaders that he remembered “spending time at" and “going to" Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 after the worst anti-Semitic attack in US history, in which 11 people were murdered. The synagogue said he never visited and the White House later said he was thinking about a 2019 phone call to the synagogue’s rabbi.
Later that month, Biden told an Idaho audience that his “first job offer" came from local lumber and wood products business Boise Cascade. The company said it was news to them.
Biden said at the Naval Academy’s graduation ceremony last May — and again at the Air Force Academy this June — that he was appointed to the prestigious Annapolis military college by the late Sen. J. Caleb Boggs (R-Del.). A search of Boggs’ archives failed to turn up evidence of the appointment...
[Biden’s] first presidential campaign ended in 1987 due to a scandal involving plagiarism of speeches and a law school paper and exaggerations about his academic achievements.
***
Bye-ku for Sen. Romney
To oppose Trump now
You calmly saved your strength then
Against Obama.
--Anonymous
***
James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival" and also the co-author of “Borrowed Time: Two Centuries of Booms, Busts and Bailouts at Citi."
***
Follow James Freeman on Twitter.
Subscribe to the Best of the Web email.
To suggest items, please email best@wsj.com.
(Lisa Rossi helps compile Best of the Web.)
***
