Worst-Case Trump: What if losing the election only makes him stronger?
As president, Trump—a con man who traffics in dark fantasy—would quickly find himself constrained by the realities of actual government. The Constitution makes it difficult to pull off the kind of Putinesque strong-arming that Trump admires. Instead, he would be forced to try, and ultimately fail, to be what he is not: a capable and measured leader, his power subject to the checks and balances of a democracy. Congress has its own political stories to tell. Supreme Court justices, unlike reality-show apprentices, can’t be fired.
.. But a narrow loss would hold no such pitfalls for Trump. Robbed by Crooked Hillary and a rigged election, undermined by politically correct wusses and Mexican rapists, Trump will don the mantle of martyrdom. Nothing is more central to Trump’s brand than a sense of grievance, and nothing will make him and his followers feel more righteously aggrieved than losing to Hillary Clinton in a close election. In defeat, his power and appeal will grow a thousandfold.
.. Trump has taken to describing the election in apocalyptic terms, as the final chance his followers have to hold on to their way of life. “This will be the last election that the Republicans have a chance of winning,” he proclaimed at the Values Voter Summit in September. “You’re going to have people flowing across the border, you’re going to have illegal immigrants coming in, and they’re going to be legalized and they’re going to be able to vote, and once that all happens you can forget it.”