“Senior GOP Officials Exploring Options If Trump Drops Out”

This isn’t from the Onion:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senior-gop-officials-exploring-options-trump-drops/story?id=41089609

From my perspective, of course, ’tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

I expect ABC’s reporting is correct, though, and that Mr. Trump isn’t actually thinking of dropping out of the race.  He is, after all, a supremely egotistical man.

But it’s not impossible that he is.

For one thing, Mr. Trump may not be especially interested in actually being president:

“Trump Reportedly Tried to Convince Kasich to Be His VP by Offering Him the President’s Job”

“Would Mike Pence Be America’s Chief Operating Officer?”

Perhaps the presidency might just be another trophy — like, say, one more garish Trump casino or one more model wife — for his collection.  (In which case, here’s a way that he might be able to garner my vote come November:  If he were to promise that he would resign the presidency immediately after taking the oath of office, I could perhaps support the Trump-Pence ticket.  But, of course, Trump promises tend to be . . . well, dubious.)

In any event, Mr. Trump may be seeing the proverbial handwriting on the wall, which indicates that he’s very likely going to lose the November election.  For example:

“The Republican Convention Was a Failure”

Moreover he shows no signs of upping his game.  Of late, he’s been involved in a needless fight with the Muslim family of a slain American soldier.  He’s shown himself clueless on a  major recent foreign policy issue (involving Russia and the Ukraine).  He’s apparently lied in an attempt to undercut the Republican Speaker of the House.  And virtually every day there’s some new indicator that he’s temperamentally and intellectually unfit for the presidency.

There are even growing concerns that Mr. Trump could drag the Republican Party as a whole down with him, losing the Senate, the House, multiple governorships, and legislative majorities in some states; George W. Bush has reportedly wondered aloud whether he might be the last Republican president.

Mr. Trump is, remember, a supremely egotistical man.  And, after continually mocking Mitt Romney as a “pathetic loser,” he may not relish the prospect of losing the White House himself — perhaps much, much more pathetically.

In that light, it’s conceivable that Mr. Trump’s recent complaints about the 2016 election being “rigged” are intended to preemptively explain his impending defeat or, even, to justify a pre-election exit from the presidential race.