The Trump Apocalypse Watch is a subjective daily estimate, using a scale of one to four horsemen, of how likely it is that Donald Trump will be elected president, thus triggering an apocalypse in which we all die.
Well, today might be the beginning of the end—or it could the millionth time we’ve thought “today might be the beginning of the end” in a hopeful fashion before having our spirits crushed. The specific reason for optimism: An on-the-record group of Republican convention delegates has announced that they’re trying to figure out a way to avoid making Trump their party’s nominee. That’s further than anyone whose opinion actually matters has gone so far in suggesting that Trump should be denied the nomination. At the same time, Washington Post writer and reliable Beltway-conventional wisdom indicator Chris Cillizza wrote a column today called “It Might Be Time for Republicans to Start Panicking About Donald Trump.”* If Trump does get dumped by the party, this is how it would start.
We’re still a long way off, though. The Post article is about a few dozen delegates out of 2,000, and there is no sign as of yet, polling-wise, that the Republican primary voters who picked Trump are souring on him; replacing him on the ticket would split the party’s voters and guarantee Hillary Clinton’s election. Still, if you want to picture the one horseman below as, like, three-quarters of a horseman, I won’t stop you.
Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Getty Images, Wikimedia Commons
*Correction, June 17, 2016: This post originally misspelled Chris Cillizza’s last name.
