So why not try offering him a payment to go away now, rather than leaving him to stumble over body bags for nine more months until Inauguration Day? Ten billion dollars might do the trick, especially for someone whose hotel properties are bleeding money under the total business shutdown he and the coronavirus combined to inflict on the country. Officially, it would be his own decision, one last great act of being in charge and making deals ($11 billion? You got it, sir!)

And then he’d be gone. Think of how big the upgrade from “man whose management experience took place for pretend, on TV” to “man whose management experience took place in Indiana” would be, even if the latter experience was had by Mike Pence! Pence’s own accomplishments in the public health field are pretty bleak, but even Donald Trump recognized he made a more plausible crisis manager than Trump himself. The first things Pence would do, probably, would be to fire Jared Kushner and stop making personal attacks on Democratic governors.

Imagine how much just those two things would help! Ten billion dollars would be a bargain.