now this probably isnt going to be passed by the house, so it wont do anything, BUT...5 republican conservative senators are openly defying trump. they are susan collins, thom tillis, mitch mcconnell, lisa murkowski and rand paul.

personally i think the next republican candidate for president is unlikely to be a trumpsucker...the "maga faction" of voters literally only cares about trump for the most part. the people that tried to suck his toes arent going to be the next trump, because trump wouldnt do that to another trump.

rand paul is a bit wacky, and susan collins and mitch mcconnell are a bit old for the trials of running...lisa murkowski is cool but rather independent, that is not really a "party person" -- she once lost the R nomination for her seat and bucked the party, ran independent and beat the republican -- so that basically just leaves thom tillis. (no i dont know why its thom instead of tom.)

thom tillis is from florida and represents north carolina which are two really important states for republicans to win in order to be president...he also announced already that he isn't running for senate again in 2026 when his six-year term will be up. he looks fairly presidential and all too so... i think there is a really strong chance he will be the republican candidate in 2028. if the republican primary debate is him vs jd vance he will clean his clock twice over i have no doubt. boomers clobber genxers every time it seems.

there still might be president vance bc mitch mcconnell is 83 and hates trump for crapping all over the republican party he worked so hard to build & run for his whole life...i think theres an increasingly real chance he decides to go out with a bang, especially if trump keeps letting the military go unpaid over petty squabbles in congress. thats basically presidential desertion, and just desserts for deserters is a kentucky special.