The Trumpocalypse is here, but maybe we should’ve seen it coming.

At the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, comedian Seth Meyers quipped, “Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising since I just assumed he was running as a joke.” This reflected the sentiment of most Americans when Trump officially announced his bid for presidency in June.

With Trump almost universally regarded as the comic relief of the election, it was all fun, games and guilty pleasures. His campaign quickly became a bet of the Trump that can’t be trumped, leaving us in disbelief as each bigoted or sexist blunder believed to be political suicide only fueled his campaign and his rock solid ego.

But with Trump smooth sailing to the Republican nomination in the same week as endorsements from a former Ku Klux Klan leader, ex-teen heartthrob Aaron Carter and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, it has become very clear that he in fact can’t be beat.

Various politicians and news outlets have suggested we start to prepare for the real possibility of a Trump presidency, so should you start planning your Canadian emigration? I wouldn’t.

Voters should keep in mind that we have only seen Trump in relation to other GOP candidates, and with a clown car of risible running mates it is no small wonder that his inflated confidence seduces voters.

But when parties collide and the hard questions are asked, Trump’s incompetence won’t prevail. It may be lost in your desk calendar of Trumpisms, but it wasn’t long ago that Fox News journalist and Syracuse University alumna Megyn Kelly asked Trump serious questions in a January debate and he threw a tantrum regarding her as a biased period-crazed monster, refusing to participate in any subsequent Fox affiliated debates.

Even if Americans were voting solely on showmanship, the inarticulately enthralling Trump vernacular can only uphold itself in its own party. It’s nonsensical to think that Trump’s bumbling about building a wall along the Mexican border and temporarily banning Muslims from the United States can substantiate itself against candidates like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Trump is a gift to the Democratic Party, made obvious by the Republican Party’s desperation to stop him. Anyone that suggests that his path to the White House is a yellow brick road is simply enticing the fears of those who find Trump’s entertainment as hard to swallow as it is to say the words “President Trump.”

One must keep in mind that Trump is quintessential media porn. And with more than eight more months of this election, no one wants the fun to die out too soon.

Trump is likely to win the Republican nomination, but presidency? I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.

Mia Tomasello is a junior environmental communications major at SUNY-ESF. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at atomasel@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @MiaTomasello1.

Published on February 29, 2016 at 10:41 pm