I often wonder why anyone would want to be President, but never have I pondered it more than in the case of Donald Trump. He doesn’t need the job, he’s a senior citizen, and he is remarkably ill suited for the job due to a lack of experience in government, the inability to take criticism, a lack of intellectual curiosity, a lack of comprehension for how evidence works, the burden of proof and the scientific method, an astounding lack of logical and critical thinking skills, and a trend toward conspiracy theories. He’s also a racist, Nazi sympathizer, misogynist and admitted sexual predator. He shouldn’t be President, yet he is and he seems to like it enough to periodically suggest he should remain President beyond the two terms allowed by the Constitution of the United States. Why?

There is precious little in terms of an agenda in the Trump Administration. Their legislative achievements are basically one massive corporate tax cut that has allowed companies to earn billions in profits tax-free. Everything else they’ve done are undoing Obama-era decisions and they’ve done them through the Executive Orders Trump so often bashed Obama for using. All his talk during the campaign about how he alone could “fix” what ails this nation was just talk. There’s been no swamp draining, no wall building, no taking on prescription drug pricing, creating new manufacturing jobs. Hell, he doesn’t even fill cabinet positions. Throughout government there are open positions and tons of Acting department heads that he’s simply placed in these positions after the actual department heads fled the Administration. The House of Representatives has passed tons of bills that Senate Majority Leader McConnell won’t even bring up in the Senate and Trump appears either completely uninformed, or completely uninterested. So clearly the mechanics of actually governing doesn’t drive him.

He has been campaigning for his reelection in 2020 since he was elected in 2016. That seems to be his one true passion in this job and I think it points to exactly why he wants it. He is now the Ultimate Celebrity in the World. His every word captures global attention. He’s on television and in the newspapers on a daily basis. He can walk up to a gaggle of reporters any time he wants and just spew his inner monologue and have an attentive audience. In fact, the Administration has actually stopped doing Press Briefings and Trump just talks to the press himself. He can fly around the world on a government plane and hold court anywhere, any time. What a fucking head trip!

His entire reason for wanting to be reelected is so his show doesn’t get canceled. He no longer has to deal with TV network heads to keep his show on the air, he only has to get enough votes. Even losing the popular vote, while obviously painful to his ego, won’t cancel his show. As we’ve already seen, he only needs an Electoral College victory. He doesn’t have a strategy to do that, he’s just going to go on being himself and attacking everyone and anyone who might get in the way of his goal of remaining the Ultimate Celebrity. Even the attacks on his enemies have no thought behind them. They’re often so vague, you can plug any name into the sophomoric insult and it would make no difference. He has no idea if it will work, but by doing it, by remaining in the spotlight, he already is getting what he wants. All the attention, all the time, from everyone. If there’s ever a lack of sufficient attention, he has his Twitter account where he can force the issue and generate lots of interest in him once again. Forget Celebrity Apprentice, forget TV ratings, forget his name on buildings, he’s the self-proclaimed Chosen One! His loyal supporters have claimed he’s everything from the King of Israel to the greatest President of all time and everything in between. When he needs a more intimate shot of an attention fix, he’ll assemble his folks, go around the table and have them all heap praise upon him.

There’s one way and only one way to stop this circus: ignore the motherfucker. People hate to be ignored generally, but Trump would go batshit crazy if he walked out of the White House to get on his helicopter and there were no reporters begging for his answers to their inane questions. Imagine if Fox and Friends didn’t talk about him at all for even one morning show! No news coverage, no headlines in the Times or the Post. Nothing. Silence. We would watch the self immolation of the Ultimate Celebrity before our very eyes. He would very publically become completely unglued and perhaps that, and only that, would get his show canceled in November of 2020.