When Trump was elected in 2016 I told friends, "he's going to be the USA's penultimate president. He'll show how easy it is to trample over all the supposed "checks and balances" but he's too infantile, feckless, and stupid to really capitalize on what he does. The Republican who follows him, however, will likely be more intelligent (hardly a tall hurdle to surmount...) and more cynical and more purposeful. That person, whoever he is, will be the USA's last elected President, although subsequent elections will be held just as they are in other dictatorships, with the outcome decided months in advance." So it will be J.D. Vance who becomes the USA's first (but not last) dictator-for-life. Plato was right, wasn't he?