For those who acknowledge the feasibility of a second Trump presidential term with mild to moderate dismay or outright dread, there’s some good news on the horizon. The operative word is ‘some’.

Should Donald Trump become the 47th president (and that’s what he’d be; he can’t be the 45th again, because Joe Biden is already the 46th), Trump’s tone – which is his most unpopular characteristic – is likely to be less abrasive and less undignified this time around.

Before unpacking that prediction, let’s consider the following question: why does Trump even want to be president (again)? The easy answer is, he loves it. He loves the attention, the power, and the glory. And he believes he’s very good at it; after all, he’s a self-proclaimed “very stable genius.” Those who think he’s doing it to enrich himself financially or to stay out of jail really don’t get it.

For one thing, if there’s anything the United States – despite its underperformance lately – is good for, it’s that it’s still a place where if you have a whole lot of money to begin with, it’s really easy to make a lot more. To modify the adage “you need money to make money,” it logically follows that you need billions to make billions. In other words, lucrative post-presidential deals might’ve been a significant boost to the net worth of the Reagans or the Obamas, but they barely move the needle for the Trumps. And those who think Trump wants to be president again so he can enrich himself by cajoling foreign dignitaries to stay at his hotels, that’s about as ridiculous as thinking that footage of two boxes pulled out from underneath a table at a polling place could have made the difference in the 2020 election.

As for Trump wanting to become president to stay out of jail, that’s also quite a wild presumption, to say the least. Like it or not, Trump’s not actually, physically, going to jail, even if he’s found guilty on an indictment or two.

Those, then, are not the reasons. The world is Trump’s playground and what more joyful way to play in it than to be president? Oh, there’s a third reason: revenge. Trump wants to use the bully pulpit to squash – metaphorically, not physically – all those he thinks have wronged him. And that’s a mighty long list.

Ok, so where’s that good news I promised? To Trump detractors, none of this sounds pleasing so far. But if Trump does win again, you’ll begin to see him taking some measured steps – not giant ones, but not baby ones either – to becoming a tad more presidential. Sure, he’ll still Tweet (or ‘Truth’, as it were), but he won’t use terms like “lamestream media,” which impress simpletons on the right, whose counterparts on the left equally think it’s clever and original to say “Donald Dump.” He’ll spew less minutiae about the particulars of how, in his mind, the 2020 election was stolen, even though he’ll imply it by repeating ad nauseam that “I won the presidency three times.”

He will more vocally condemn Neo-Nazis and the like. It’s not as if he likes them now, but for the small swath of voters (and yes, it’s small, but large enough to make a difference) who’d abandon him now if he overtly lambasted such groups, he humors them by pretending he’s silently with them. He’s not. Granted, in many respects Trump always felt more comfortable at construction sites talking to guys hauling cement in wheelbarrows than to hedge fund managers at the Penn Club, but his infamous quip “I love the poorly educated” was a bit much. It’s more that he needs them than loves them. But he won’t need them nearly as much if he’s back in the Oval Office.

The main reason it would be different this time is that is that if Trump wins, he can’t ever run for president again (and he wouldn’t run for any other office). In other words, Trump needed Marjorie Taylor-Greene types to secure re-election, but he won’t need them anymore. He’ll simply take victory lap rallies, reminding us of how great a president he is, without as many cheap shots at his critics. To put it another way, had Trump won in 2020, he’d be more presidential now than he was during his first four years in office.

Many will dismiss this line of thinking as hogwash, insisting that Trump can’t help but be unhinged. What they don’t realize, though, is that if Trump’s really not a crazy person but merely plays one on TV, even those of his supporters who cringe at his uncouthness will still vote for him rather than allow a Democrat to win. But the sliver of Trumpies who support him precisely because he acts like a boor just might stay home on Election Day if Trump became polite all of a sudden.

Granted, those who hoped they’d seen the last of Trump won’t be too comforted by all of this, but a little good news is better than none. It would be like if someone told me that Biden’s going to win again and he won’t stop printing more money for infrastructure and government giveaways that will reinvigorate inflation; that he won’t call out his fellow Democrats on many of the absurdities of wokeness; and that he’ll continue to stumble verbally and physically at almost every public appearance; but that at least he’ll secure the border and reopen the Keystone XL Pipeline project. That still wouldn’t make me entirely happy, but at least it would be some sort of improvement.