This is… odd.

For two years, many Democrats believed exactly what Michael Cohen believed, that Trump would pretend to run in order to get all the money he could, but then not actually run because he couldn’t afford – under any circumstances – to lose twice.

But then as it became more apparent that A) Someone was going to indict Trump (Garland hasn’t shown any interest), and B) Trump’s only defense so far is to say that this is all “election interference” and political. But the fact that Jack Smith almost surely will indict Trump, means that Trump has little choice but to run for president because his only defense is to pardon himself before or after trial.

And yet Anthony Scaramucci still believes Trump will drop out but use a faked illness as an excuse. Anderson Cooper first asked if the indictments and the lack of family (Ivanka and Melania) around will impact Trump’s campaign:

“I do think that’s going to impact him,” he responded, before claiming Trump’s family has been relatively absent from his side this time as opposed to his campaigns in 2016 and 2020. “It’ll be very time-consuming. But I think the absence of his family members in this campaign is gonna knock him out of the race. He just doesn’t do well without them.”

Who knew?

No, it’s not that he loves them so much as he leans on them. He needs his own little structure in which he is king and he has his princes and princess. Anderson Cooper made an odd remark about Don Jr. and Eric “wanting nothing to do with this campaign”… (Has Anderson been on Twitter this year?), and Scaramucci said he didn’t see Trump lasting until Iowa. Anderson flabbergasted, “He would drop out?”

“Well, he would fake an illness or something like that,” Scaramucci responded. “He would come up with a very clever excuse, but, but–I don’t even–listen, you get hit with two more lawsuits like this, maybe another arrest and arraignment in Georgia and your family’s nowhere to be seen and you’re somebody like Donald Trump, it’s possible. You can’t rule it out.”

But you almost can rule it out because – again – all those arraignments, which we assume are coming, require him to be president to pardon himself because he knows he’s guilty AF on the files case at a minimum.

I think Scaramucci is wrong. Trump may miss his wife and princess, but he has no choice but to plow ahead. And that is scary because I think the Republicans are going to set this country up so as to be almost impossible for the Republicans to lose in 2024. Look at all that happened this week, including talk of impeaching a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who won an election on TUESDAY, and North Carolina suddenly becoming a super-majority legislature that can override any veto… one can feel it coming.

Anthony Scaramucci thinks Trump might “fake an illness” to drop out of the race. (Video: CNN)mm pic.twitter.com/6LXvs7gDYC

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) April 8, 2023