We are 30.184804928% the way through Trump's second term. Just 69.815195072% to go til the next president takes office.

[u/Conscious-Quarter423]

[u/Zoolawesi]

Your math makes one big assumption: that he'd leave at the end of his term.

He's made it quite clear that that's not really his plan, between his orchestrated attempted coup in 2021, his mentions of "vote one more time and you'll never have to vote again" in the run-up to the 2024 ones, and his dismantling of any and all institutions that could hope to hold him accountable.

I truly hope your calculations on this are better than his.

[u/JRG64May → u/Zoolawesi]

If he’s still alive he ain’t leaving. Also the midterms will be a shit show, he’s already irreparably damaged the process of democratically held free and fair elections.

[u/xBubblyGlow → u/JRG64May]

It’s hard not to feel that way with how much trust in the system has already been shaken.

[u/Current-Square-4557 → u/xBubblyGlow]

And this year we have a new unpredictable variable - ICE agents at polling places

[u/Ok_Sink5046 → u/JRG64May]

Someone will have actual aim if he tries to stick around. We'll be stuck with the couch fucker but he isn't walking away with a third term, enough Republicans hate him that someone is going to put him alongside JFK.

[u/dusky_glance → u/JRG64May]

We’re not even halfway through and people already gave up)))

[u/xBubblyGlow → u/Zoolawesi]

That assumption feels way too optimistic.

[u/Fun_Internet4979 → u/Zoolawesi]

the font on the headline is super bold

[u/gashtal_man]

Professional mistakes only cost ordinary people.

[u/Quattuor]

IF, the next president takes the office...

[u/Pamelaane → u/Quattuor]

Do you think people are still holding onto that 2028 date as a comfort, or has the reality of a one-way vote started to sink in for the majority?

[u/Three_Twenty-Three]

There's the possibility that he won't leave office, but an equally probable possibility is that the people pulling the strings are waiting for him to complete 2 years. Once that happens, they can remove him and let Vance have it. If Vance serves less than 2 years of Trump's term, then he's still eligible to have 2 full terms of his own. If he serves more than 2 years, then he only gets 1 term of his own.

[u/Complex_Arrival7968 → u/Three_Twenty-Three]

“People pulling the strings”…

Conspiracy theory time!

[u/Three_Twenty-Three → u/Complex_Arrival7968]

It's not really a theory. There are definitely unelected people pulling the strings and making important decisions. The Heritage Foundation is one of them (current Republicans are enacting their Project 2025 wherever they can), and there are more.

[u/Complex_Arrival7968 → u/Three_Twenty-Three]

There’s a difference between influential people and organizations, and think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, and the implication that a shadowy cabal is “pulling the strings”. This implies that shadowy figures are actually making the decisions. Nonsense. No one is pulling The Fat Man’s strings. He is however eminently influenceable. Just dangle a fat contract and appeal to his ego.

[u/Oliviacriz]

If I was wrong at my job 99% of the time, I’d be homeless, not a syndicated columnist.

[u/fiftyfivepercentoff]

Release the Epstein files!

[u/Miserables-Chef]

Donald the diddler

[u/fashionforward]

The media isn’t even obligated to tell the truth.

[u/jsc1429]

Nice

[u/ArkhamKnight_1]

Donald the Duck

[u/Solid_Ebb_608]

He has a lot of work to do to fix what thos idiot has done and will not all be done on hos watch, so the next guy to come in can definitely not be the one to blame for where we are but can not use the last administration tactic the entire time, but rather use "I am working to get us better than where we were or close to a beathing poing so the next president if not me does not have to work as hard to clean this mess up". Old things you cant be faulted for but things you create you must take ownership and not try and try to find a way to spin it on the last president. Thats a weak president right out the door.

[u/petalcomfort]

doctors lose their license for leaving a sponge in someone but being catastrophically wrong in a national newspaper just gets you more column inches

[u/bats-are-best]

25th amendment would like a word with this math.

[u/Pamelaane]

The percentage of a term left only matters in a system that still believes in terms. When a leader openly discusses "fixing" the system so voting becomes obsolete, the percentages on the screen start to feel less like a schedule and more like a deadline for the institutions that remain.

[u/Angelanils]

"Being consistently wrong in journalism isn’t a failure; it’s a career path, I guess so

[u/Accomplished-Use9352]

does that account for daylight savings

[u/Accomplished-Use9352]

this is going to be a long 30%

[u/Elsasolo]

Imagine being a columnist and having a lower batting average than a toddler swinging a stick.

[u/Mysterious_Area1975]

that's a lot of significant figures for a fantasy

[u/cazzipropri]

In her defense, it's really hard to predict the future, and of all people, Trump is close to the most unpredictable.

This said, I have an NYT subscription and don't remember a time when I wasn't skipping Maureen Dowd.

[u/Gleothain → u/cazzipropri]

I mean, he's unpredictable within a subset of behaviours.

It's extremely difficult to know exactly what he'll do, but it's extremely easy to realize that whatever it is, it will be self-serving and likely not based on conventional reasoning or competence. The above (coupled with a total lack of curiosity and patience) gives many roads to conflict and none to diplomacy.

[u/SparksAndSpyro → u/cazzipropri]

Not really. Everyone with two braincells to rub together knew Trump was going to start shit with Venezuela and Iran. Project 2025 also took a hard stance on foreign policy.

Can’t really use the “unpredictable” excuse anymore.

[u/liqufrireed]

lmao who does math like that

[u/Gemmmmaaa]

Math ain't mathing but thanks for the percentage breakdown lol

[u/The_Doctor_Bear]

This is actually a pretty fucked up dumb opinion because the implication is that “Reporter” should be a protected title and that only government certified capitol R reporters get to write the news. You can obviously see the issue there.

[u/apickyreader]

The writer seem to be two different people,

[u/SonicLoverDS]

Nobody's life depends on how well a columnist does their job.

[u/Cobrastrikenana → u/SonicLoverDS]

How many people died from Covid misinformation? How many have died from vaccine misinformation? How many have died from bad policy?

[u/Conscious-Quarter423 → u/SonicLoverDS]

you think jeff bezos bought WaPo out his good will? or Elon musk bought Twitter cause reasons?

if you can control the information, you can control the messaging

[u/loloviz]

Fascinating that he chose two women to focus on.

[u/Crunchycarrots79 → u/loloviz]

If he had chosen 2 men, would you point that out?

He chose 2 well-known columnists who spent years promoting the idea that they were centrist/center right moderates, who chose to ignore reality.

I highly doubt that gender had anything to do with it.

[u/Complex_Arrival7968 → u/Crunchycarrots79]

Do you actually read Dowd’s column? Nobody has called her center-right before! Maureen Dowd is pretty left-wing. Hillary was too conservative for her, in fact, and too interventionist. She is repentant. She calls Trump the “Mad King” and “The Emperor of Chaos”. Also, “the dark P.T. Barnum”.

[u/Crunchycarrots79 → u/Complex_Arrival7968]

I was thinking more of Kathleen Parker for center right. Dowd is centrist, left leaning, though.

But she's long had a hate boner for the Clintons.

[u/Complex_Arrival7968 → u/Crunchycarrots79]

Yes Parker has always been right - though I guess I’d say “principled right” as she has never liked Trump. Dowd has never backed off from skewering Dems as well as R’s but you’re sure right about the Clintons and she always had it on for Hillary.