One thing I think is being a little underrated as a potential chaos agent in the next few years is how shaky the Trumpist coalition is. There are at least three different coalitions underneath the umbrella, and they rarely work well together. Infighting might just save us yet. - ThreadSky

emilystjams.bsky.social • 116 days ago

One thing I think is being a little underrated as a potential chaos agent in the next few years is how shaky the Trumpist coalition is. There are at least three different coalitions underneath the umbrella, and they rarely work well together. Infighting might just save us yet.

Comments

businessraccoon.bsky.social•116 days ago

I keep reminding myself how hard it was for them to keep a Speaker of the House and am just hoping that energy continues from them.

wbwilson.bsky.social•116 days ago

Worth hoping for. I'm really worried tRump will be "retired" as old and exhausted and we get Heritage Foundation darling JD. He did write the foreword to Project 2025

wrentcontrol.bsky.social•116 days ago

More like provide the openings we need to save ourselves

jennifilm.nz•116 days ago

Aotearoa has a pretty shaky coalition between three right wing parties at the moment, including some project 25 types, and we hoped for this kind of instability to lead to the govt falling over. Sadly, a year in, they've been pushing full speed as fast as they can

peregrinekiwi.bsky.social•116 days ago

It will be interesting to see if that survives the Deputy PM change over.

rebeccaallen.bsky.social•116 days ago

I wonder if the spotlight (and money) of the World Cup and Olympics being held here will discourage or delay some plans. I can hope.

kellymkay.bsky.social•116 days ago

The last two were held in Qatar and Russia. Saudi Arabia is hosting 2034.

rebeccaallen.bsky.social•116 days ago

😐 ...🤞😆🤞

emilystjams.bsky.social•116 days ago

This probably wouldn't be a problem if they were under the iron fist of a strongman leader in full possession of his faculties and not easily manipulated by whomever talked to him most recently, but... well........

racheleklein.bsky.social•116 days ago

I am very much imagining a Sneetch situation where people line up to be the last in the room with Trump hoping their idea will stick in his head & then have to get right back in line once the next guy gets his turn…

emilystjams.bsky.social•116 days ago

Like some part of me wonders if Elon Musk thinks he's going to be the shadow president, and that arrangement just doesn't seem like the sort of thing Trump would be into.

prairieguy2623.bsky.social•116 days ago

Trump’s brain is mush. Working around him to dictate policy while letting him pretend he’s in charge will be child’s play.

emilystjams.bsky.social•116 days ago

If the coalition was of one mind, then, yeah, they could easily manipulate Trump to their own ends. But the coalition is made up of a bunch of different interest groups tugging in opposite directions. So they'll all try to manipulate him in diametrically opposed ways.

prairieguy2623.bsky.social•116 days ago

I’m not seeing where any of their conflicts are over policy. Conflict of egos, maybe, but I think that when you are on the verge of having the limitless power and wealth of the federal government at your disposal, you’re willing to compromise or exercise a little patience.

alexanotherone.bsky.social•116 days ago

Low key think JD Vance and Elon Musk are going to have slap fights about who will be shadow president which will be exhausting

michelet.bsky.social•116 days ago

And RFK

ianmcin.bsky.social•115 days ago

RFK can go sit in the car.

matthewrigdon.bsky.social•116 days ago

You think Peter Thiel is just going to sit this out?

girldicta.bsky.social•116 days ago

I feel like they may both think they are getting one over on the other. Elon thinks he’ll be the shadow president, Trump thinks Elon’s his billionaire lapdog.

missmarycl.bsky.social•116 days ago

Yeah I imagine Trump and Musk will fall out spectacularly sooner or later. There's only room for one egomaniac in the White House/Trump's world.

transsalamander.bsky.social•116 days ago

My other worry is that Trump is not long for this world given his age and such, and wasn't Vance groomed to be the puppet president of billionaires?

emilystjams.bsky.social•116 days ago

I just don't think Vance has the juice, and you need the juice, even if billionaires are propping you up.

rubyclimber.bsky.social•116 days ago

I agree with you on this. Vance doesn’t have what it takes to rally the base. At this point, I don’t see an “heir apparent” that the coalitions will rally behind.

bajoran-orbison.bsky.social•116 days ago

Yeah. I always understood this was a beast that would grow another head, but I really thought Trump would lose and - for exactly the reason you mentioned - leave them floundering for years to come.

subtlefire.bsky.social•116 days ago

define juice? he's going to be in position, he'll be getting orders any time he's indecisive, he'll be surrounded by yes-men (and a token woman or two) who won't push back. he or his billionaires will have whatever dirt files have kept Repubs in line this far

piltdownwoman.bsky.social•116 days ago

I think Vance lacks appeal. As dumb and trashy as Trump is, I get why certain people like him, why he has such a strong, cultish following. I don't see Vance (or any other prominent Republic politician right now) inspiring that kind of following.

zenmuppet.bsky.social•116 days ago

He's a dweeb and nobody either likes him or is afraid of him. I don't think he can step in and exert the level of control needed (hopefully I'm not wrong about that).

gollyzilla.bsky.social•116 days ago

I think there are a lot of people thinking they’re going to be the shadow President in the next administration and a few of them are actually going to be correct

meencat.bsky.social•116 days ago

Oh I am very sure there will be a falling out because both of them think they are the best at everything and can do anything. There’s no room for two egos of that size in the admin.

travisjcook.bsky.social•116 days ago

He's also not exactly the most charming or well liked of individuals, which means if he rubs enough folks the wrong way, he'll go the way of the Mooch. (I hate that I remember that name)

ahumanbymistake.bsky.social•116 days ago

Not going to lie, as bad as this is some of it is going to be pretty funny to watch.

https://youtu.be/I1Dmj1OArD0?si=E5-cE8LasFZ7SCod

anguirus.bsky.social•116 days ago

There is also no heir apparent, at least, not one who seems to have the broad electoral appeal that has propped this whole thing up

queenofdragonpass.bsky.social•115 days ago

Focusing activism into areas where their coalition doesn't align might be an important strategy.

librarianjenne.bsky.social•116 days ago

I am clinging to the hope that their egos and utter incompetence will doom most of their efforts.

carrieannetc.bsky.social•116 days ago

If I were a foreign government with an interest in global stability and a democratic superpower instead of all fascist ones that will align together, I would put my intelligence resources into trying to stoke those fires a bit. Maybe that’s just me looking for a savior.

johndellaporta.bsky.social•116 days ago

Forget “adults in the room vs chaos agents”, it’s “plutocrats vs bros vs culture weirdos”

Who wins the porn ban fight? Who wins the vaccine fight?

emilystjams.bsky.social•116 days ago

Yeah, if RFK takes over the FDA and is, like, "No more medicine!" I don't really know that the plutocrat wing of the party is going to be, like, "Swell!"

johndellaporta.bsky.social•116 days ago

“Right sure yeah great but WE who need the life-saving meds for OUR kids still can get them, RIGHT? You’ll keep the fluoride in OUR water, right?”

ellz.bsky.social•116 days ago

They will get the secret rich baddy medicine

clairewillett.bsky.social•116 days ago

big pharma owns a lot of senators! so does big agriculture!

venya8008.bsky.social•116 days ago

if rfk jr actually tries to ban Doritos and mayonnaise, there is a non-zero chance trump starts asking his aides about good hitmen to hire

jonathaneilbeck.bsky.social•116 days ago

He'll pardon Sirhan Sirhan.

chimasimone.bsky.social•116 days ago

Emily, this is the first ray of hope I’ve had since Tuesday night. Infighting & incompetence might just save us. Thank you.

hollygl125.bsky.social•116 days ago

Honestly, same!

transsalamander.bsky.social•116 days ago

I think you're right. It won't stop all the horrors, but it's gonna hamper a fair number of them.

jonsternfeld.bsky.social•116 days ago

PLUS, someone wants to be the heir apparent and there's no obvious choice. Gonna get ugly, no doubt.

ironirma103.bsky.social•116 days ago

I love when bad guys fight each other, Megatron-Starsceam type shit

teawhilewriting.bsky.social•116 days ago

I do think some of their policy ideas are more radical than politically expedient so I'm holding on hope to that. Plus the religious right is a difficult group to please.

dorkland.itch.io•116 days ago

That was their main weakness in his last administration. That and general incompetence.

piltdownwoman.bsky.social•116 days ago

Eh, I don't expect that to happen until Trump dies. For now, he keeps them pretty united.

hypercubexl.bsky.social•116 days ago

I worry a lot because there's a playbook and a plan this time and he might be more of a figurehead, or simply die. but all we can do is find out

emilystjams.bsky.social•116 days ago

The thing is, so much of totalitarianism involves leader worship, and that dies with the leader. That's not to say you can't build an effective totalitarian state sans said leader, but it's really hard when you _started_ as a cult of personality around one dude.

hrm-kristin-i.bsky.social•116 days ago

It would be one thing if there was a charismatic second in charge.

emilystjams.bsky.social•116 days ago

His best bet was Ivanka, and she's clearly uninterested.

hypercubexl.bsky.social•116 days ago

right, and I also feel like it's going to be a true disaster this time with musk's plans and RFK jr and all that, last time he chose the worst people for the jobs but these jabronis will genuinely cause an apocalypse, people will be kinda mad at that

notaname.bsky.social•116 days ago

yeah it really is hard to guess how it would go if Trump doesn't survive his full term, like would him being out of the way make it easier for them to enact their plans (because he wouldn't mercurially fuck it up) or harder (because they'd all be knives out for each other)

luigithirty.bsky.social•116 days ago

A plan never survives contact with the enemy and it’s not going to take much for the incompatible strands of fascism to turn on each other

tsmith81.bsky.social•114 days ago

Mmm, that’s an interesting line of reasoning. Maga infighting hasn’t translated to electoral outcomes for us, so far. We’re losing the culture war, but dangerous and stupid white nationalists in power ruining everything could give us chance to push more people to the right side of history.

champl.in•116 days ago

They are truly a bucket full of crabs

emandras.bsky.social•116 days ago

Also (and this is pure wish casting) he is SO fickle and hates being told what to do. So maybe he’ll get irritated with Elon or Miller or the Evangelicals and do the opposite of what they want, just to remind them who really is in charge.

After all, he doesn’t need them to win again.

rds773.bsky.social•116 days ago

And he’s going to be even more unmanageable and chaotic this time around

They’ll all be trying to figure out how to get him off his latest weird obsession like electric sharks or golfer dick

wattle.bsky.social•116 days ago

Amoral oligarchs, religious fanatics and car dealership owners?

leannareneehieber.bsky.social•116 days ago

💯 This was my first "comfort" thought.

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