'More demented by the day': Could Trump resign after the midterms?

By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Donald Trump, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

A Poll Disguised as a Theory of Power

Four Scenarios, One Missing Institution

Robert Reich presents four possible midterm outcomes: presidential defiance, congressional exposure, Senate conviction, or resignation. Yet only the first seriously confronts the central question—whether a change in congressional control would matter if executive agencies and the Supreme Court refused to enforce meaningful limits on Donald Trump.

That is not primarily an electoral question. It is a question about institutional power.

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Congress Cannot Govern by Revelation

Reich argues that a Democratic House could investigate what he characterizes as the Trump administration’s “corruption, cruelty, and incompetence,” pursue impeachment, and develop legislation for a 2028 platform. Those are powers Congress can exercise. But hearings do not compel consequences by themselves, and proposed bills do not restrain a president unless they become law and are enforced.

The weaker framing treats public exposure as an adequate substitute for institutional control. It is not. Information matters, but only political mythology assumes that sufficiently damning evidence automatically produces accountability.

The Enforcement Problem Is the Story

Reich’s first scenario identifies the harder issue: a congressional contempt finding or fine could prove ineffective if the Justice Department declined to enforce it. He also predicts that the Supreme Court would defer to Trump if disputes reached the justices. The article offers no evidence establishing how either institution would act, so these remain predictions, not facts.

Still, the underlying structure is concrete. Congress can issue demands, pass measures, and initiate proceedings. The executive branch controls much of federal enforcement. Courts decide cases brought before them. A legislature unable to secure compliance does not possess the power its formal procedures imply.

Impeachment Is Not Electoral Wish Fulfillment

The third scenario depends on Democrats winning both chambers and attracting enough Republican senators to reach the two-thirds threshold for conviction. Reich supplies no vote count, named defectors, or evidence that such a coalition exists. “Blue tsunami” is aspiration dressed as analysis.

Impeachment is often discussed as though outrage can manufacture Senate votes. It cannot. Senators make political decisions according to incentives, constituencies, and control of their party—not according to the emotional force of a columnist’s forecast. Without evidence of Republican defections, conviction is speculation layered on top of another speculative election result.

Resignation Is the Least Grounded Escape Hatch

The fourth scenario imagines Trump resigning, installing JD Vance as president, and leaving Democrats room to assert leadership. Reich offers no reported indication that Trump is considering resignation. His claim that Trump is becoming “more demented by the day” is rhetoric, not a diagnosis established by the supplied material.

This scenario removes the central actor through conjecture because the institutions described elsewhere may be unable or unwilling to remove him. That is not a forecast grounded in evidence. It is a narrative shortcut around the enforcement problem.

Elections Do Not Repair Institutional Surrender

The article’s most revealing feature is not which scenario readers select. It is how quickly the possibilities move from structural conflict to fantasies of exposure, bipartisan conviction, or voluntary departure.

If a president can disregard Congress because executive officials will not enforce congressional authority and courts will not impose limits, then winning seats is only the beginning of the contest. The systemic failure lies in treating formal powers as self-executing—and electoral victory as a substitute for institutions willing to use, defend, and enforce them.

Thanks to Alter Net

Source: ‘More demented by the day’: Could Trump resign after the midterms?

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We warned them.We told them.We shouted from the rooftops.We plead.We begged.They didn’t listen.Now, we all will suffer.Y’all know what to do, right?VOTE BLUE! 💙Vote as if your life — nay, our country — depend on it.Because, this time, and every time, it does.