Buckeyed Foresight

Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio is to appoint his Lieutenant Governor, Jon Husted, to fill the United States Senate seat vacated by JD Vance. It had been widely expected to go to Vivek Ramaswamy, so this is a victory for Old MAGA, and even for the Old GOP, over the libertarian tech bros. The two sides of the Second Trump Coalition stand for diametrically opposed things. Steve Bannon has already made it clear exactly what he thought of Elon Musk.

If the Democrats truly believed that Donald Trump was a Fascist or what have you, then at the very least they would not attend his inauguration. On Monday, they will all be there. Had he been alive, then Jeffrey Epstein might well have been there. Rumour has it that Trump may refuse to accept Peter Mandelson's credentials, but officially because of Mandelson's ties to the EU. Would that it were explicitly because of Mandelson's ties to Epstein. That, though, would embarrass too many of Monday's free lunchers.

Another at the trough will be Nigel Farage, whose party is likewise an unsustainable coalition between Old UKIP plus Failed Tories, and voters who were more likely than those of any other major party to believe that there was a class conflict in Britain and to favour a neutralist foreign policy. By the time of the next General Election, the second Trump term will be almost complete, and everyone will be able to see how these things worked out.