Trump has been running a con for a long time, but he now knows it's over. He knows that things will only get worse from here, that there are too many people who are now calling in their chits, and it's time to get out. If he doesn't, then Vance will 25/4 him, and it will happen with him having even less control over the process. I do not think it was accidental that Vance met with Murdoch, nor that it was made public. This was Murdoch sending a strong signal to Trump that he could not count on support from Fox News anymore, which means that the entire propaganda wing supporting Trump collapses. Epstein is not suddenly a Cause Celebre that appeared out of nowhere - it's the spearhead of a movement to get Trump out of office before he brings the entire edifice down with him.
Trump is going (voluntarily or otherwise) to take a plane in the next six months to a country without an extradition treaty, or he's going to be carried out in a faux gold-plated pine box. The state charges don't really matter at this stage - it's someone else's mess to deal with. Trump just received a $2 Billion dollar bitcoin payoff. This was not accidental - it is payment for services rendered and Trump knows that if he stays on for too long, he won't be leaving the White House alive.
My expectation: soon-to-be President Vance is going to rebuild the cabinet from scratch. It'll still be conservative, but it won't be the neo-Nazi conspiracy nut sycophants, idiots and ne'er-do-wells that are in there now. Much of the more controversial funding will be restored, quietly, and the tariffs will be dismantled, except where they may provide leverage.
Vance is not going to be a beacon of liberalism, and yes, Democracy is still very much under threat, but Trump will be gone. After that, it's a different battle, but it's one we're used to fighting.
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