So if Trump actually has corona, he's not in a great position — I don't mean politically, I mean he could actually just fucking die. He's old, his health is shit, mf drinks nothing but diet coke and sleeps four hours a night. If he ever gets more than the "mild" symptoms he has now, he's fucked. That's a given.
But if he actually dies...?
Politically, if he dies, Pence is immediately sworn in as President. He then has to pick a VP to be recognized by both houses of Congress, and given the proximity to the election (and general limp dickedness), I can't imagine the Dems would put up any fight against whoever he nominates. Everybody get ready for VP Tom Cotton, I guess.
Moving on, the Dems were never going to fight against Amy Tony Bennett, but I can see them putting her on an unreasonably high pedestal as a sort of "honoring Trump's last will"-type bullshit. Before, Dems were going to not fight her but not support her — if he dies, they might support her out of some misguided sense of duty, maybe even fight for her.
Then there's the matter of the election. Ignoring the fact that many have already voted, I could definitely see Pence fighting to postpone. This would require both houses of Congress to pass a law enabling that. If they manage to get that done, then the election is postponed to ??? Probably December?
This is bad for a few reasons. One, I could see the Republicans using this as a chance to fight even harder against mail-in voting. More ballots will be thrown out. Demands could be made to have people be able to "cast their vote again" or whatever, making the argument for getting rid of those initial ballots even stronger. Finally, a postponed election means Biden would have to campaign for another month which I simply think he does not have the strength to do.
This isn't even mentioned how much it'll get all the White Nationalists riled up. If Trump dies, everything the Dems try to do will be spun out of control by the media as them attempting a takeover, something they'll deny (which will make them only seem like they're doing it more). I could easily see the cops, Proud Boys, every other asshole taking it as a cue to go buck wild — not sure what that means quite yet, but I know that the Dems don't have the strength to fight it. Trump dying could be the thing that makes the US go Balkan.
What am I missing here? This is all pure speculation, but it's something to think about.
This only adds more chaos to the system. Hard to see any path forward that's better than the one where he didn't get it.
He deserves it and I'll be glad he's getting his, but this is pure acceleratist fuel, even if he recovers.
At least one senator will call it a poisoning by the democrats, multiple will blame China and call for a military response of some kind. Militias will take to the streets out West and to voting sites in November all across the country. Trump dying of COVID is bad. Not much worse than whats already going to take place in the next two months of confusion and heightened tension (unless the republicans unit behind blaming China for his death) but absolutely not better.