As soon as November’s election result came in, millions of people were suddenly willing to wish four years of their lives away at top speed, a feeling they hadn’t felt since… Well, two elections ago. For many, then, the year 2028 is now a mythical utopia, the proverbial carrot to keep us going through Donald Trump‘s second presidency because one thing is certain: he can’t run a third time, right?
So that’s why Laura Loomer‘s latest looney tunes tweet, while as gonzo as her usual spiel, is sickening enough to leave one reaching for a barf bucket. “The 2028 Presidential ticket is going to be Vance-Trump,” Loomer declared, unprompted, as if that tiny voice in your head that speaks all your worst fears had an X account. “JD Vance will run for President,” she hypothesized,” and Donald Trump will run as his VP.”
Now, very little of what comes out of Loomer’s mouth or her social media should be taken at face value — this is the “investigative journalist” who might’ve inspired Trump’s “they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs” line, don’t forget — but, in this case, she isn’t the first to suggest something like this. Although, for others, Trump finding a way to keep himself in the White House by any means necessary is something to be feared not celebrated.
Loomer seems to championing Trump to take what you might call the “Putin Route” — it used to be that Russian presidents could only serve two consecutive terms, so in 2008 Vladimir Putin switched to the role of prime minister until Dmitri Medvedev as president. In 2012 he was then re-elected president and, in 2020, he did himself a solid and reformed the Russian constitution, allowing himself to reign indefinitely.
Trump going all Emperor Palpatine is obviously the worst-case scenario for his opponents and critics, but once again it’s important to remember: Laura Loomer is cuckoo bananas. She seems to be forgetting that Donny will be 82 in 2028 and, well, he’s already showing signs of his advancing years, to put it kindly. As much as he might imagine himself to be, he ain’t a tough, “I like to hunt topless through the Russian wilderness” sort like Putin. He can’t go on running for office forever… can he?
JD Vance becoming president is, bizarrely, a less fanciful notion, however. Some have predicted that, at some point over the next four years, Vance may well be called on to take the top job. It’s hard to imagine exactly what a Vance presidency would look like, but he might well make some sweeping constitutional changes of his own. Like, for example, making it legal to marry your couch or forcing the Academy to finally give his on-screen mamaw Glenn Close an Oscar (Ok, that and only that is one we could get behind).
So, for the sake of our sanity, let’s just focus on the present and steel ourselves for the four years ahead before we start foreseeing the chaos that awaits us in 2028 and beyond. Going by how else 2024 has turned out, we might already be living in the Planet of the Apes by then, who knows.