For nearly a decade, Donald Trump has been the gravitational center of the American right. A populist demagogue who reshaped the GOP into a vehicle for grievance, authoritarianism, and spectacle. But behind the scenes, a power struggle seems to be brewing. The movement built in his image might have outgrown him. His legal liabilities are stacking up. His erratic behavior has turned from asset to liability. And most damning of all: the billionaires who once bankrolled his ascent are getting nervous.
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This post is an opportunity to put on my tin-foil hat and jump into the mechanics, motivations, and dangers of such a scenario. It explores how this internal coup could unfold, who stands to gain from it, and why the American far-right may be preparing to sacrifice its king to preserve its kingdom.
The 25th Amendment Trapdoor
If there is a trapdoor beneath Donald Trump, it may well be the 25th Amendment. A constitutional mechanism designed to protect the country from an incapacitated president, but ripe for exploitation by a party looking to quietly sideline a political liability.
Trump’s erratic behavior, legal entanglements, and increasingly unhinged public outbursts have long made him a risky standard bearer. As he continues to hemorrhage support among key donor classes and suburban independents, his viability as a general election candidate grows shakier. Yet, the movement he built, MAGA, is still a potent force. For the emerging class of nationalist conservatives, including JD Vance, the path forward may involve removing Trump while retaining the energy and base he galvanized.
Enter the 25th Amendment: Section 4 allows the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the President unfit to serve. It was never intended for political expediency, but in a world where power is paramount and the stakes are existential, it becomes a tool as much as a safeguard.
Here’s how the scenario might play out:
Pressure quietly mounts inside Trumpworld from donors, operatives, and think tank loyalists who see the former president as a liability rather than an asset.
A triggering event occurs. A mental lapse on stage, a meltdown caught on hot mic, or a health scare. Suddenly the justification for invoking the 25th becomes politically viable.
The Cabinet moves, and Vance steps in, all under a narrative of “preserving stability” and “protecting the movement.”
What makes this particularly dangerous is the aftermath: if successful, Vance becomes president, inherits the MAGA base, and is then eligible to run for two full terms. That’s potentially 10 years of consolidated, tech-backed nationalist rule, driven by a younger, more disciplined operator. Someone who speaks fluent populist but thinks in the cold calculations of venture capital.
The brilliance (and horror) of this strategy is that it gives the conservative power structure a clean break. Trump becomes the scapegoat. The unruly king that was cast out by his own court. His downfall would be positioned not as betrayal but as necessary to “save America.” The same base that once chanted his name could be turned, through propaganda and disillusionment, to see him as the man who betrayed them. A false prophet cast aside for a new messiah.
And in that political sleight of hand, the authoritarian infrastructure, voter suppression, judicial manipulation, corporate consolidation, continues apace. Trump is the spectacle. Vance is the strategy.
Enter J.D. Vance
If Trump is the dying star, JD Vance could be the black hole forming in its place. Quieter, denser, and just as destructive. Vance, once a never-Trumper with a “bootstraps” memoir, has been fully reborn as a hard-right nationalist with tech bro capital and Christian nationalist credibility. But he’s not acting alone.
Behind Vance looms Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist with a long-standing contempt for democracy and a fetish for monarchic efficiency. Thiel, who once wrote that “freedom and democracy are no longer compatible,” has spent the last decade cultivating a crop of post-liberal acolytes: people like Blake Masters, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Vance himself. The “Thiel Fellowship in American Fascism,” if you will.
Thiel’s interest in Vance isn’t about personality. It’s about programming. Vance is malleable, polished, and able to sell authoritarianism in a button-down shirt with a Bible quote. His rebranding from Yale-educated venture capitalist to Appalachian firebrand was as carefully managed as any IPO. And it worked.
The scenario unfolding here is Thielism in practice: a handpicked executive figurehead, wrapped in populist rhetoric, backed by billions in dark money and a network of surveillance capitalism firms like Palantir. If Trump exits the stage, whether by 25th Amendment maneuver, legal collapse, or health crisis, Vance doesn’t just become a successor. He becomes the culmination of a decade-long project: a new kind of American autocrat, engineered in Silicon Valley and installed via democracy’s own mechanisms.
Vance’s policies are the prototype of this shift. He blends evangelical social reactionism (anti-LGBTQ+, anti-abortion, anti-public education) with a populist-sounding but fundamentally elite-serving economic agenda. Strip away the noise, and it’s the same authoritarian impulse wearing different masks: deconstructing pluralism, empowering corporate enforcers, and reducing citizens to data points.
This is not accidental. It is a deliberate project to capture and hollow out democracy, replacing it with a system where elections still happen, but power never really changes hands. The kind of system where the rich get richer, dissent is algorithmically silenced, and the people are offered just enough spectacle to stay passive.
And with Trump out of the way, there’s no need for chaos or tweets. Just clean, quiet, permanent control.
The Controlled Collapse
Trump was never meant to last forever. He was the wrecking ball, not the architect. The Republican power structure, from billionaires like Peter Thiel to media oligarchs like Rupert Murdoch, have always understood that Trump’s chaos had a shelf life. Now, with legal baggage piling up, cognitive decline increasingly visible, and the public growing numb to his endless scandals, they see an opportunity: a controlled collapse.
Here’s how that collapse could unfold. Not as a defeat, but as a reset for the movement.
Step 1: Isolate the Problem
Behind closed doors, Trump is rebranded as a liability. Not because of his policies, but because of his optics. His rambling speeches, obsession with revenge, and inability to execute a consistent strategy make him a weak vessel for the authoritarian project moving forward. The talking points start to shift subtly: he's not wrong, just too erratic, too self-serving, too… unwell.
Think tank operatives and columnists begin gently suggesting it’s “time for a new generation.” Fox News runs more segments featuring Ron DeSantis, JD Vance, or even Youngkin. Quieter candidates who can push the same policies without the circus.
Step 2: Create a Constitutional Crisis, Solve It Cleanly
The 25th Amendment scenario emerges not from liberal pressure, but as a Republican self-cleaning mechanism. Allies quietly float the idea: Trump is mentally unfit, a risk to national security, a distraction from the “real fight.” GOP operatives leak memos, health questions resurface, and the chaos narrative crescendos.
If invoked, it wouldn’t come as a shock and would be framed as necessary, even patriotic. The base is split, but the institutional GOP rallies around a new banner: “Save the country. Save the movement. Move on.”
Step 3: Mythologize the Martyr
Crucially, Trump isn’t discarded as a villain. He’s recast as a fallen hero. Betrayed by the deep state. Brought down by corrupt courts. Misunderstood by elites. The MAGA faithful are given an outlet for their rage, but it’s redirected. Not toward the system that enabled Trump, but toward the enemies who “took him down.”
This makes room for a new champion. One who “respects Trump’s legacy” but brings “discipline” and “real results.” Someone who can finish the job. JD Vance. Ron DeSantis. Even a media-hardened outsider like Tucker Carlson.
Step 4: Tighten Control While the Public Watches the Drama
As this succession drama plays out, the real project continues beneath the surface: voting restrictions, data-driven surveillance, union suppression, regulatory rollbacks, and anti-democratic legal frameworks. The energy of Trumpism is repackaged, not rejected.
Vance, or someone like him, offers the perfect pivot: Ivy League polish, populist language, tech industry backing, and none of Trump’s impulsiveness. He’s not there to fight the system. He is the system, optimized and upgraded.
The Outcome?
If successful, this maneuver preserves the authoritarian momentum of the past decade while jettisoning its most volatile face. It replaces Trump’s chaos with corporate control, his narcissism with algorithmic governance, his rallies with apps and data dashboards.
Democracy doesn’t fall overnight. It’s eroded. Until one day, people wake up and realize the circus is gone, the strongman has left the stage… and what replaced him is far more dangerous.
Murdoch’s Megaphone: Manufacturing Consent for a Coup
If Trump’s fall is to be managed, Not as a disaster but as a calculated transition. The narrative must be tightly controlled. That’s where Rupert Murdoch comes in. As the media mogul behind Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post, Murdoch has always played a dual role: kingmaker and undertaker.
He helped build the Trump presidency. Now, he may be preparing to bury it.
Murdoch’s empire is essential to making the 25th Amendment plausible to the Republican base without triggering total revolt. He won’t lead with headlines that say, “Trump unfit for office.” Instead, you’ll see a slow drip of content aimed at reshaping the story:
Trump is tired.
The deep state is winning.
What we need now is a fighter with “focus.”
JD Vance is the natural evolution of the movement.
The stakes are too high for more chaos.
This is how you sell a purge as progress.
By the time the moment comes, it won’t feel like a betrayal. It’ll feel like destiny.
The New MAGA Mythology
Once Trump is sidelined, Murdoch's outlets will begin recasting history. Trump will be remembered selectively: the fighter, the disrupter, the victim of witch hunts. His failures, COVID mismanagement, insurrections, incoherence, will be blamed on enemies, saboteurs, and fake news.
Meanwhile, JD Vance (or whoever fills the role) is introduced as the mature heir to the throne. He gets things done. He speaks plainly. He doesn’t tweet at 3am. He’s what Trump could’ve been if he didn’t have all the baggage.
Fox and its ecosystem aren’t just spinning PR. They’re engineering obedience. Their goal is to reabsorb MAGA diehards into a cleaned-up machine, one capable of consolidating power more effectively than Trump ever could. And with fewer legal liabilities.
What they’re selling isn’t a break from Trumpism. It’s a streamlined, executive-ready version of it. Scrubbed of its orange clown makeup and fitted for a boardroom.
The Propaganda Playbook
Here’s what the messaging pipeline might look like:
Soft Doubt
Fox News hosts like Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters begin asking if Trump is “losing his edge.” They float concerns while pretending to care: “We love President Trump, but…”The Responsible Pivot
Wall Street Journal op-eds argue that it's time for "a Republican who can win." Emphasis on “discipline,” “seriousness,” and “restoring order.”Legacy Laundering
Trump is framed as the “visionary who lit the spark”, but couldn’t finish the job. The true savior must now rise.Heir Apparent Ascends
JD Vance or another pre-selected successor becomes a nightly presence. Interviews, profiles, hometown stories. Viewers are trained to accept him as the new face of “saving America.”Attack and Isolate the Fringe
Anyone who doesn’t go along with the new direction is cast as unstable, radical, or leftist-adjacent. This keeps the base unified and the Overton Window sliding further right.
The endgame isn’t justice, reform, or restoring integrity. It’s continuity. Keeping the authoritarian machine running with a sleeker operating system. Trump becomes the ghost in the machine, and the next generation of autocrats gets to rule without the chaos.
Can It Work?
On paper, the idea of removing Donald Trump via the 25th Amendment to install a successor like JD Vance sounds far-fetched. The stuff of backroom fantasy. But the disturbing truth is: it’s not impossible. In fact, it might be the cleanest way for the GOP establishment and its ultra-wealthy backers to retain control of the movement Trump built, without having to manage Trump himself.
The Infrastructure Exists
The pieces are already in place:
Fox News and the Murdoch empire are poised to shape public sentiment.
MAGA-aligned politicians like Vance, DeSantis, and Hawley are standing by, each ready to inherit the base.
Donors like Peter Thiel have deep pockets and no emotional loyalty to Trump, just an interest in power and influence.
This isn’t a movement that hinges on authenticity. It’s a machine. And machines can swap out parts.
The Precedent Has Been Set
Trump himself lowered the bar for what counts as a legitimate president. The idea of a strongman, a CEO-style ruler, someone who “gets things done”. That came from Trump. So removing him for being too chaotic? That could be spun as a “mature evolution” of the brand.
The same way Reagan handed off the conservative movement to Bush with a smile and nod, the establishment could force a transition and reframe it as necessary for victory.
The Public Can Be Managed
A large portion of the base is not ideologically loyal to Trump. They’re loyal to the story. If the story becomes “Trump was betrayed by enemies, and now the movement needs someone else to carry the torch,” that’ll work for many. Especially if the replacement offers the same enemies, the same language, and the same cruelty. Just a fresh repackage.
That’s where Vance comes in. Ivy League polish. Rust Belt cosplay. Billionaire-backed, but with just enough populist patina to fool people who want a fight, not a thinker.
Legal Leverage
Trump is legally vulnerable on multiple fronts. If his legal troubles accelerate, or if he seriously melts down in public, invoking the 25th Amendment could be framed not as a betrayal, but as “necessary for the good of the nation.” This gives Republicans political cover. They didn’t abandon Trump, they saved the country.
And if Trump resists? That makes it even easier to portray him as unstable.
Risk of Blowback
But here’s the wildcard: the true believers.
There’s a non-zero risk that purging Trump could fracture the base, creating violent backlash or leading to defections. Some MAGA loyalists are cult-like in their devotion. They may not follow a new messiah just because Fox News says so.
Still, the GOP bet is this: better to lose the loudest 5% than let Trump crash the whole machine. Especially if a polished successor can bring in swing voters and independents while still pushing the same authoritarian policies under a fresh face.
What Can Be Done
If this scenario seems far-fetched, that’s part of its power. Authoritarian maneuvers often happen in the open, but feel unreal until it’s too late. The 25th Amendment fantasy might just not be a what-if scenario. It’s a proof of concept for how political elites could rebrand fascism for a second act. And that means we can’t afford to be caught flat-footed.
1. Expose the Narrative in Real Time
The greatest threat to this kind of authoritarian sleight of hand is exposure. If the script starts to flip. If Murdoch, Thiel, and GOP operatives begin distancing from Trump while propping up someone like Vance. We need to call it for what it is: a soft coup, not a natural transition. A hostile takeover of a movement that was already violent, now being sanitized for broader appeal.
Tracking messaging shifts in right-wing media, highlighting coordinated talking points, and naming the billionaire players behind the scenes can help disrupt the illusion.
2. Undermine the Replacement
JD Vance or whoever else steps in will present themselves as “a new voice,” “a serious leader,” or “the adult in the room.” Don’t buy it. Don’t let anyone else buy it. Their politics are Trump’s politics, just with a cleaner suit and a speechwriter.
This is authoritarian continuity, not reform.
We must hit early and often, branding the heir not as an alternative to Trump but as a calculated Trojan horse.
3. Fortify Our Institutions — and Movements
None of this works without institutional complicity. The judiciary, corporate media, and even Democratic centrists will be tempted to play along, normalize, or compromise for “stability.” That’s when grassroots pressure matters most.
We can’t wait for another insurrection to start organizing. We need coalitions, watchdogs, and grassroots networks already in motion, especially at the state and local level, where much of this power is being consolidated.
4. Refuse the False Choice
We will be told, explicitly or implicitly: “You had Trump or you can have this other guy. Take the upgrade.” But that is a rigged deal. Our job is to reject the entire framework. The choice is not between chaos and control. It’s between authoritarianism and democracy.
We don’t need a “better strongman.”
We need no strongman.
The Coup Isn’t Coming. It’s Being Beta Tested.
This moment isn’t about Donald Trump losing control. It’s about the machine he empowered, evolving beyond him. Like a snake shedding its skin, the right-wing authoritarian movement is looking for a newer, cleaner vessel. Trump was always a means to an end. Now that end is coming into focus.
JD Vance, Peter Thiel, and the rest of the algorithmic aristocracy don’t want Trumpism to die. They want to inherit it. Refined. Streamlined. Marketed to independents. Sold to the suburbs.
It’s a hostile rebrand of fascism. And it’s already in the works.
So what do we do?
We name it. We mock it. We disrupt it. We out-organize it. We don’t fight the last battle. We fight the next one, now. Because if we wait until the 25th Amendment is invoked, until the networks start calling Vance “presidential,” until Trump is cast off as a tragic cautionary tale, it’ll be too late.
The coup is quiet. Let’s be louder.
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