Looking ahead to 2020?
Newsweek puts our retiring Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker on a list of likely Donald Trump challengers (as we have speculated in past pieces.)
Actually, it's pretty easy to pick out the folks who are possible Trump challengers. Just look for fellow politicians whom Trump himself has already branded as likely competitors. Hint: Who has he made up a name for with his school-yard bullying tactics?
"Liddle Bob Corker," "Little Marco Rubio," "Lyin' Ted Cruz," "1 for 38 [primary contests won] Kasich."
You get the idea.
And, yes, those other names above also are on Newsweek's top 10 likely Trump-opponents-in-2020 list, along with Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.; former Hewlett-Packard and 2016 presidential primary candidate Carly Fiorina; Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb.; New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez; former Massachusetts governor and 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney; tech billionaire and NBA Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban; and, of course, Vice President Mike Pence.
Actually, Trump has publicly branded all of these folks - except Pence - with some kind of public name-calling insult.
Flake has been ''Flake(y)". You might remember when Trump said of Fiorina: "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?" Trump likened Sasse to a "gym rat," and he told New Mexico rally attendants: "Your governor [Martinez] has got to do a better job."
Romney got a full suite of insults, as Trump labeled him a "stiff" and a "catastrophe" who had "choked like a dog" when he ran for president in 2012.
And when Cuban called Trump a "jagoff" who got "stupider before your eyes," Trump, in turn, called Cuban "dopey" and "not smart."
Forget four more years. Does anyone think we can stand even just another campaign like this?
Watch your back, Mr. President
Meanwhile, the worshipful Pence in a recent sycophant cabinet meeting praised Trump once every 12 seconds for three minutes straight, according to a Washington Post analysis of the meeting.
This month's issue of The Atlantic puts it this way:
"In Pence, Trump has found an obedient deputy whose willingness to suffer indignity and humiliation at the pleasure of the president appears boundless. When Trump comes under fire for describing white nationalists as 'very fine people,' Pence is there to assure the world Trump is actually a man of great decency. When Trump needs someone to fly across the country to an NFL game so he can walk out in protest of national-anthem kneelers, Pence heads for Air Force Two."
Atlantic writer McKay Coppins posits that Pence believes God has a plan for him. "Pence is a man who believes heaven and Earth have conspired to place him a heartbeat - or an impeachment vote - away from the presidency."
Watch your back, Mr. President.
So Pence, who can summon the most worshipful face on the planet, has so far showed absolute deference to the president. And thus far his reward is that he has become one of the most influential figures in the White House, with plenty of responsibilities and what the Atlantic calls "an unprecedented level of autonomy."
But Trump can't help being Trump. He's been known to ask White House visitors who'd recently met with Pence: "Did Mike make you pray?" And Coppins reports that a longtime adviser told him that when it was learned last January that the Pences would be moving some of their family pets - which include two cats, a rabbit, and a snake - into their federal resident, the Naval Observatory, Trump ridiculed the menagerie to his secretary.
"He was embarrassed by it; he thought it was so low class," the adviser was quoted by Coppins. "He thinks the Pences are yokels."
This from a low-class guy caught on tape bragging about grabbing women in crude ways?
By the way, the Trump White House has no plans to add a first family pet, East Wing communications director Stephanie Grisham told CNN a few months ago.
Of course not. Trump only has room for himself.
On second thought: Watch your back, Mr. Vice President.