Whither Pam Bondi?

Oh, the speculation.

The hometown Tampa prosecutor who went off into the world to become Florida's attorney general, a bona fide national political figure and, big plot twist, uber Trump loyalist, is ending her time in Tallahassee.

Then the president himself brings the whole what-will-she-do-next thing from simmer to full boil by telling reporters Saturday he would "consider Pam Bondi for anything" and "in some form, I'd love to have her in the administration."

Pam Bondi, U.S. attorney general? Well, Trump did just send the last one packing.

The unblinking loyalty Bondi has shown to a president who values that above all else in people around him surely would win her points. Except she'd have to be crazy or ambitious or whatever you'd have to be enough of to want that job in the current state of the world.

Her meteoric rise has been a thing to behold.

At the Tampa courthouse, she was a well-liked prosecutor who hugged victims, championed shelter dogs and seemed apolitical. People who know (or knew) her and watched her career unfold since tend to fall into different camps: Those who admire all she's accomplished, and those who think she sold her soul to get there. For some, maybe both.

At the state capitol, she didn't seem like Bondi from back home — her defense of Florida's gay marriage ban, for example, and that incendiary line in court documents that said changing Florida's marriage laws "would impose significant public harm." That had CNN's Anderson Cooper asking her about hypocrisy when she went to Orlando after the horrific mass shooting at a gay night club.

She did some principled things as attorney general, fighting pill mills and pushing voters to get behind ending the sad practice of greyhound racing in Florida. She also stuck by Trump to the end, pressing for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh despite convincing allegations of attempted sexual assault when he was a teenager. She blasted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for not investigating unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. Through a spokeswoman, she used one of Trump's favorite put-downs — "fake news" — to deny reports she would soon meet with the president at Mar-a-Lago to discuss her future.

If she actually were interested, the Senate confirmation would be bruising. She could expect focus on, say, that $25,000 check her political action committee got from Trump's foundation during her re-election, around the time her office was looking at complaints about Trump University.

But here's the thing: She's got options that surely sound better than Washington's current hellish state. For starters, Fox News can't get seem to get enough of her as a commentator.

And back in Tampa, where rumors grow like weeds without need for a seed of truth, one has Bondi coming home to run for mayor. (Are you buying this step down? Me neither. ) Another has her in 2020 taking on Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, the Democrat who surprised a lot of people by beating Bondi's former boss and friend Mark Ober.

Though she has been notoriously silent about what's next, this week she said she has no plans to run for office again. If I were a betting woman, I'd say it's Bondi to Fox News.

But in this strange and improbable fairy tale of a hometown lawyer who became someone else, would anything surprise you?

Contact Sue Carlton at scarlton@tampabay.com