Sarah Longwell, founder of the Republican Accountability Project and publisher of The Bulwark, recently commissioned a poll of likely Republican primary voters. She writes that "one question I was keen to answer with this poll is how many 'Always Trumpers' would follow Trump if he lost the GOP primary and launched an independent bid for president."
What she found is that 28% of these voters are "locked in for Trump [and] say they’ll support him even if he ran as an independent in the general election."
With that — should that come to pass — GOP presidential nominee Ron DeSantis would go down in hellish flames not even Dante Alighieri could have imagined in his most poetically sadistic moments.
Would Trump try for a third-party run? Or barring that — given the vast difficulties of making it onto 50 state ballots, especially in a late-stage effort — would he encourage the faithful to write in his name?
The question is a rhetorical one. Because Trump's famous vindictiveness — aimed straight at DeSantis for, undoubtedly, having "stolen" the nomination from him — would virtually ensure a write-in scheme. If he is to be denied the White House, then no other Republican shall have it.
What's more, notes The Bulwark's Jonathan Last, a third-party or massive write-in campaign "could bring in a lot of money" for Trump. Last continues:
"And if the question is: 'Trump could make a lot of money by doing X; will he do X?'
"Well, then the answer is usually: Yes."
Here, Mr. Last errs. The answer is always: Yes.
One last chance to fleece the rubes? You betcha. And perhaps again in 2028, should all those cheeseburgers and fries fail to throttle the Orange Blight by then.