Will a Trump Presidency Last Four Years?

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump had a favorite theme song he used at the end of his rallies, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” That could have been a very cynical joke he played on his voters because it accurately describes the betrayals and disappointments he has in store for those who unfortunately bought into his con.

Or it could end up prophetic about Trump’s presidency if it ends prematurely.

Going into this week’s inauguration with the lowest approvals and highest disapprovals of any incoming president in modern history (in a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, only 40% of Americans view Trump favorably while 54% view him unfavorably…compared to Obama in 2008 with 83% favorable and only 12% unfavorable) and having lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, Trump starts off in an unprecedented hole.

He has no mandate, no reservoir of good will as a buffer, he’s already upside-down as a president in popularity and it’s hard to see how this gets better instead of worse.

He’s already broken central promises that his voters are counting on. Repealing Obamacare on day one,  making Mexico pay for a massive billion dollar border wall, draining the swamp in DC and prosecuting Hillary Clinton and putting her in jail. The minority supporting him has already been getting smaller just during the transition period.  Some Trump voters are realizing that they will have to be singing to themselves, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” for four whole years…assuming Trump can last four years in office.

What will happen to his remaining support when his obviously corrupt cabinet are caught with their hands in the cookie jar or seen harming the best interests of the majority to benefit the 1%? When it becomes clear that Trump’s refusal to divest himself from his businesses brings him a windfall of wealth on the backs of the American people? And what will happen to his and Republicans’ support when their plainly unpopular positions on killing Obamacare, privatizing social programs, taking over women’s rights to their own bodies, suppressing the rights and voting of minorities, come to fruition?

Or when the economy tanks because massive tax cuts for the wealthy only put the country in much larger deficits and cuts to programs to reduce deficits bring greater poverty and job losses?

As Trump elevates a Russian dictator as America’s closest ally and Vladimir Putin is emboldened to act on this around the world, how will Trump be viewed?

And adding his harsh rejection of the 1st Amendment by vilifying, cutting out and manhandling the press from covering him openly with his continuing personal attacks on individual Americans via Twitter, how much farther could his approvals fall?

Is it possible that if Republicans are looking down the barrel of being crushed in 2018 and 2020 because they’ve tied their wagon to Trump, they may be open to impeaching him for the corruption that he’s inevitably headed towards? Though that would leave the dangerous Mike Pence in the presidency, might Trump not be able to last the full four years in the White House?

Some suggest that Trump never really intended to win the Presidency and will either get bored or annoyed with it and quit voluntarily. Others suggest Republicans might impeach him if things get as bad with Trump as President as they seem they will. The remaining argument is that Trump has too big of an ego and need for attention to ever abandon the spotlight of the presidency.

When you start off your presidency with a majority of the country already disapproving of you and that number has only grown during the transition period, before you even take office and make decisions that affect anyone, a smart businessman would be investing in the pitchforks and torches industries.

Continuing to use the con man tricks he used in the campaign will only backfire once he’s in office. Once you’re in a position to make things happen, you’re held responsible if you don’t. And those naive enough to have believed his obvious lies are already in the minority supporting him, he can only lose some of those voters, he can’t gain more.

In order of likelihood, it would seem that it’s more likely Trump will remain President all four years no matter how large a majority of voters disapprove of him because his narcissistic personality disorder would dictate that. However, what may be next most likely, due to all the built-in corruption Trump’s already installed into his presidency, impeachment might be the next most likely scenario. Then comes the legit possibility that Trump gives into being the coward that most bullies are and quits.

In any case, you may recall what has always happened once Republicans have this much power in Washington…corruption runs wild, the public gets fed up with it and Republicans are removed from power in populist/anti-incumbent elections.

How would Democrats winning back the Senate in 2018 and being staunchly adversarial to Trump, impact his desire to remain in the White House? Trump has always been the one with power in his life, how would he feel to have a co-equal branch of government deny him what he wants?

Trump voters may remain blindly faithful and foolishly optimistic that the greedy, selfish, lying, bigoted billionaire really just cares about helping the simple working people but the proof will be in the pudding a year from now, as the 2018 campaign gets into gear.

How would Trump respond to having a growing majority of Americans oppose and disapprove of him? Would he continue ahead or look into the mirror and sneer, “You’re fired!”?

Only time will tell what Trump will do when for the first time in his life, he won’t be able to escape the widespread contempt he earns.  Will he stay or will he go, willingly or unwillingly? He’s dragged politics and the presidency into the reality show world he thrived in, perhaps that will be something he will soon live to regret.