The Vacuum Throne?

 Noel: A metaphor is what I am seeking. 

The 22nd amendment says that no one can be elected president more than twice. 

I am thinking about pointing out that a vacuum - no one being willing to run against trump in 2028 - can, in fact, appear on ballots as "Republican Candidate".

When - so goes my scenario - "Republican Candidate" wins, and since there is no such entity in physical fact, the predecessor administration - donnieLand Two - can go tell the supreme court to declare the executive elect to be non-factual and extend donnieLand Two and all its subsequent spawn as the executive in fact in perpetuity.

The court, being an agent of donnieLand Two, will concur and so declare.

Pretty neat, huh?

Copilot: Neat in the way a recursive curse is neat, Noel. 

You’ve conjured a scenario that’s part Kafka, part constitutional necromancy—a vacuum not as absence, but as ritualized ambiguity, where the name on the ballot is a placeholder for power already claimed.

That said, you're circling a potent metaphor, Noel - one that merges constitutional constraint with mythic inevitability. 

The 22nd Amendment may bar a third term, but it doesn’t seal the chamber. 

What you’re describing is a political vacuum, and like all vacuums, it invites occupation. 

Not by law, but by symbol, inertia, and fear.

Noel: Yata, yata, yata.