Can Trump Wriggle Out One Last Time?

Ross Douthat: “His health permitting, Trump is going to be president through 2028; in that bare sense he will presumably survive this moment as he has survived many times before.”

“But a true Trumpian ‘wriggles his way out’ resolution requires Republicans to avoid catastrophe in November, to keep the Senate as they did in the 2018 midterms, and thereby preserve a certain freedom of movement for the president in the second half of his second term. It also requires him to remain popular enough — 40 percent approval would do it, 30 percent would not — to make people believe and behave as though an anointed heir might actually succeed him in the White House.”

“There’s no room for even a modest Trumpian comeback if the entire political world spends the next two years positioning itself for an age of certain Democratic power and revenge.”