So the other day we all heard Donald Trump prognosticate about how there was going to be a “bloodbath” if he’s not re-elected.

Now, Trump is, of course, saying that he meant a bloodbath for the auto industry (if he doesn’t get the chance to put 100% tariffs on foreign cars).

Plausible deniability, one of Trump’s favorite tactics.

But he did not say “bloodbath for the auto industry.” He said “bloodbath for the country.” Just like with his “perfect” phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State in 2016 or the Access Hollywood tape, we can all hear what he says.

It’s right there, right on tape.

Trump loves to use coded language, but you don’t have to be a rhetorician or an expert in psychology to know what he’s saying. We get it by now. (Or at least most of us get it.)

He’s telling us what he’s going to do. He’s just telling us. And Trump, who has all the impulse control of an incontinent poodle, the more he talks, the more convinced I get that we will — even if only narrowly — re-elect Joe Biden.

I don’t care how narrow it is. Unlike the last time, Trump will not be in charge of the government during the transition. It will be a transition from Joe to Joe.

Secondly, assuming that Trump is not re-elected, all those court cases that he has been trying so hard to avoid come to fruition. Ninety-one counts — okay, only eighty-eight since Judge McAfee took a couple of counts off the table in the Georgia case — and they can all be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Will Trump end up in jail?

Hardly likely. But he could end up confined to Mar-a-Lago with an ankle monitor tied to his legs.

I wouldn’t put it past Trump — now that the Supreme Court has neutered his 14th amendment disqualification for insurrection — to run again in 2028. 

If he’s still alive. 

But by then the magic may have worn off. If Trump destroys the Republican party the way it looks like he’s going to destroy them, we may finally have the chance to start again with a chastened crew. But let me not get ahead of myself. We’ll see.