Trump’s election was unthinkable. Now it’s time to think about it seriously so that we can prepare for the coming nightmare. What, exactly, could go wrong?

Here’s one scenario that we can all see is going to happen soon enough. Someone is going to offend the Donald and, as always, he’ll respond with obtuse belligerence. Then, when they fail to apologize, he will cast them as an enemy and start throwing a retaliatory tantrum.

In the past, as a private citizen, this has usually looked like insults, obscenities, and vindictive lawsuits. But sooner or later, once he has the powers of the presidency at his diminutive fingertips, it will probably look like violent, militaristic acting out, using either the armed forces themselves or militarized law enforcement.

How his tantrum ends depends on who his enemy is

There are two very different ways this might play out.

If his perceived enemy is a foreign person or country, then every retaliatory act Trump takes, no matter how overblown or idiotic, will be loudly and persistently cheered by his millions of America-First fans. This might end anywhere on the scale from merely sick and appalling through tragic and horrific, all the way to a nuclear holocaust leading to human extinction. This is first among the many reasons his election was unthinkable.

However, if his perceived enemy is a domestic group, he’ll find he has a real problem: opposition he cannot subdue by bullying. The more outrageously vindictive his actions, the more ordinary Americans — even those who are currently his supporters — will be genuinely aghast. His options will then have harder limits: if he were, say, to command the Air Force to bomb the city of Berkeley, the Air Force, I believe, would respond in the only honorable way: by refusing. Then what could he do? Ask the Army to attack the Air Force?

Thus, at some point, if a domestic opponent persists in refusing to cave, he will learn that there are limits to what even the President of the United States can force upon people. Then, at last, even his former supporters will recognize the problem with putting a pathologically narcissistic bully in a position of great power. Impeachment could easily be the outcome, and that can’t happen soon enough.

Civil disobedience has never been more important

We must ensure that Trump’s inevitable first tantrum targets Americans — ideally, hardworking straight white Americans, whom no one will allow him to slaughter. This may not be too hard, as most foreigners will likely recognize the dangers and find non-inflammatory ways to deal with our man-child commander-in-chief, who is likely quite susceptible to non-confrontational forms of manipulation.

One possibility: as soon as Trump does something truly beyond the pale— something that even most of those who voted for him can’t condone — millions of Americans could launch a general strike to cripple the economy. Facing this kind of mass censure, Trump would find himself powerless. If you have other ideas, please comment below.