For all practical purposed, Donald Trump has the Republican nomination locked up.  All he needs to do is conduct himself as a gracious elderly statesman or, at the very least, a civil elderly statesman, and it’s ballgame over.  That said, my concern is that he might not be able to conduct himself as a gracious or civil elderly statesman.  It’s sad, frustrating, and mystifying all at once.

As to policies, Trump continues to say all the right things.  His most recent promise is his best to date — that if he wins in November, he will issue an executive order to stop the anchor baby scam.  In other words, a baby born to non-citizens would no longer automatically become a U.S. citizen by virtue of his being born on American soil.

If Trump keeps pounding away at this issue, along with repeating his promise to conduct the biggest mass deportation in United States history, he should win easily.  Whether he will actually follow through on his declared intentions is another matter altogether, but just saying it might be enough to get him elected.

Which brings me to Tim Scott.  While Scott has no chance of winning the Republican nomination, he definitely will be in the running for the VP slot if Trump is the nominee.  As a sitting U.S. Senator, he would seem to be the perfect foil against the left’s nonstop lies about Trump being a racist.

I am obliged here to say that however impressive Scott may be, I have never been convinced of his conservative creds.  My uncomfortable feelings in that regard were exacerbated by his endorsement of Lisa Murkowski in the midterms, a truly wretched woman who is little more than a Democrat spy inside the Republican Party.  I have no idea what redeeming qualities Scott sees in Murkowski, but the fact that he would be so enamored of her makes one question not only his judgment, but whether he would go limp like a John McCain when it comes to a bitter showdown on some important issue.

If Trump is looking for a smart, conservative black to be his running mate, a much better choice would be Byron Donalds, congressman for Florida’s 19^th Congressional District.  I’ve watched Donalds closely over the past few years, and not only does he maintain his hardcore conservative stance on all issues, he never backs down and never panders to the left.

In addition, Donalds has given Trump his unequivocal endorsement.  Coming off four years as vice president, he would make a powerful presidential candidate in 2028, and a conservative black president is the race-peddling Democrats’ worst nightmare.

Now, here’s my caveat on Trump if manages to win the Republican nomination, then follows it with a win in the general:

He must kick the habit of hiring people who hate him;

He must kick the habit of subjecting himself to interviews with people whose only objective is to make him look bad;

Finally, he must kick the habit of endorsing people who harbor a personal disdain for him and are not on board with the America First agenda.

If Trump somehow manages to defeat himself in the primaries, a Ron DeSantis/Vivek Ramaswamy ticket would be an almost unbeatable combination.  After eight years of helping DeSantis turn the country around, Vivek would then be a shoo-in for president in 2032 at the tender age of 46, which would put Dem totalitarianism on hold for a long time to come.

Things change quickly in politics, however, and young bloods like Stephen Miller, Joe Pinion, Daniel Cameron, and Josh Hawley could be in the spotlight by 2028.  And let us not forget Don Jr., because he definitely plans on running.  His verbal skills are phenomenal, but his likeability is questionable.

As to the totalitarian left, they still have the Joe/Kamala problem to contend with, and with the Biden Crime Family being increasingly disrobed, Democrats are going to have to solve that problem sooner rather than later.  Pushing Joe to the curb is easy, but gagging Kamala and putting her out to pasture continues to be a challenge.

The easiest way to remove Kamala from the picture, of course, is to get her on the debate stage in the Dem primaries where she would be summarily eviscerated.  That could occur by Biden announcing that he changed his mind about running in 2024.  As a consolation for being humiliated in the Democrat debates and having to drop out of the running early again, the Democrats would probably offer Kamala yet another no-work job with lots of frills, and, by necessity, one that requires zero intelligence.

Of course, if Democrats could bring themselves to run Robert Kennedy as their nominee, all bets would be off, but the radical left would probably prefer losing the presidency than allow that to happen.  Gorgeous Gavin is the Democrats preferred choice to replace Biden, but how in the world does he spin the fact that he managed to turn the best state in America into the worst state in America?

Stay tuned.  A lot is likely to happen in the coming months, and the only thing that is certain not to change is that politicians and politics suck.