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Notes -
Conservative Mike Cernovich (1.2M followers) Tweeted "Trump needs a VP that will make him assassination proof. Anyone saying otherwise has no understanding of the time we are in. Tim Scott as VP? Trump's survivability will drop to zero. It's incredible to me that more don't understand this."
How seriously should Trump take such a threat, and how seriously does Trump take such a threat? Yes, the powers-that-be truly hate Trump and if he became president and had Scott as VP many would rejoice at Trump's death. But by what mechanism might they kill him? Obviously, it creates horrible incentives if Trump believes the threat and it causes him to consider someone such as Kari Lake, Marjorie Taylor Greene, or Sarah Palin for his VP nominee. In sort-of support of Cernovich, part of the reason that Biden might be sticking with Harris as VP is to reduce the chances he gets removed from office for senility.
I think the odds of Trump being assassinated are low, but there's some value in speculating about it. In fairness to Cernovich, he tweets hundreds of times a day, on dozens of subjects. A thought like this occupies less than a fraction of a percent of his attention, which feels like about the right amount of time for us to contemplate it too.
"Unacceptable VP" is sort of a bad cliche at this point, it's been said about all the recent presidents. Cheney was imagined as the puppetmaster of the Bush admin, and Biden was widely mocked by conservatives as too stupid to ever credibly replace Obama. Pence was weirdly cast by some liberals as a demented anti-gay Dominionist tyrant, and there was some speculating on how Pence as president could be even worse. Kamala is probably genuinely the lowest-calibre of any of these guys, but that didn't stop the Dems from anointing her as VP to the oldest president in American history.
I agree, the odds of Trump being assassinated are low but worth some attention.
However, the odds of Trump dying, or losing his mental function, of natural causes are significantly higher. For that reason even if nothing else, he should choose a good VP candidate.
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