As a rule of thumb, as ideological differences between the two final candidates diminish, the likelihood of purely personal attacks goes up. Since Trump views virtually all of his positions as just opening gambits in negotiations with other politicians and the public, you can expect the focus of his campaign to be on his personal awesomeness and the evils of “Crooked Hillary.” In other words, it’s going to get really ugly, folks.
Trump probably thinks this kind of battle favors him, based on his affinity for bare-knuckle WWE-style politics, but he’s wrong. Unlike “Little Marco” and “Lyin’ Ted,” the Clintons have been living with this for over two decades. There’s nothing he can throw at her that she, and the entire American public, hasn’t heard ad nauseum. What will be new, fresh, and exciting, on the other hand, will be daily exposes of his unscrupulous business practices and, shall we say, unconventional personal life.
My prediction is that, barring some unforeseen world event that turns things in his favor, Trump will not only lose, but his reputation will be left in cinders, and his business will never recover thereafter. He will ultimately conclude that the joys of running for President as a carnival barker didn’t justify the risks to his brand. And that’s just fine with me.