CLEVELAND, OHIO–The Man Who Wasn't There still isn't here, but that's not to say he isn't around. We learn from this week's New York Times Magazine that the brain trust of the nominee's campaign went for one of the Grandest of Grand Bargains. We also learn that, at least in its pitch to John Kasich, He, Trump considers his role as president to be not far distant from his role as chancellor of Trump University. Namely, he's the midnight-movie TV pitchman while Kasich is the guy who does the actual job, hides the dough, shreds the documents, and accepts all subpoenas. Or something like that. From the Times Magazine:

One day this past May, Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., reached out to a senior adviser to Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who left the presidential race just a few weeks before. As a candidate, Kasich declared in March that Trump was "really not prepared to be president of the United States," and the following month he took the highly unusual step of coordinating with his rival Senator Ted Cruz in an effort to deny Trump the nomination. But according to the Kasich adviser (who spoke only under the condition that he not be named), Donald Jr. wanted to make him an offer nonetheless: Did he have any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history? When Kasich's adviser asked how this would be the case, Donald Jr. explained that his father's vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy. Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of? "Making America great again" was the casual reply.

Damn.

Now back to our midnight feature, House of Wax.

It's no secret that there are problems with John Kasich that no amount of theatrical reasonableness can disguise. Here at the convention, I've heard a lot of Ohio Republicans telling me that Kasich can be a real piece of work to deal with, and he remains wedded to the notion of the Balanced Budget Amendment, the Worst Idea In American Politics. But you have to give him credit for keeping the brainworm of ambition that lives in the head of every politician from controlling every aspect of his behavior (Hi, Speaker Ryan!) and devouring the last vestige of his self-respect (Yo, Chris Christie! What up?). He spoke to the Michigan delegation Wednesday morning, complimented them on the beauty of their state, and pumped them up for a victory in November. The name of the nominee did not pass his lips.

But the real money shot in that anecdote was that Junior The Elephant Murderer offered Kasich the heretofore unknown constitutional office of Actual President, or Prime Minister, or something beyond even the function Dick Cheney served in the Avignon Presidency. He, Trump wants the title. He, Trump wants the job. He just would prefer not to do it. That's left to all those guys who taught Junior to hang concrete and mix sheetrock.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io