With the U.S. presidential election season's nomination process all but finished, most Americans spent their Memorial Day weekend with politics absent from their thoughts. Republican candidate Donald Trump has already secured the necessary number of delegates to not only become the party's presumptive nominee for the presidency, he has also become the de facto leader of the party. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, lies only 73 delegates short of the 2,383 delegate target necessary to clinch her party's nomination with nearly 1,000 delegates still up for grabs.

So the election will be a two-person race between Trump and Clinton, right? Not so fast. Early Monday morning, conservative stalwart and editor of the Weekly Standard, William Kristol dropped a bombshell that will seemingly destroy the Republican Party and any chances it had at winning the White House.

Kristol in a Monday morning tweet said, "Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate--an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance." Within hours, Trump responded with a tirade of tweets calling Kristol a "dummy," a "lightweight," and an "embarrassed loser." Trump went on to say "The Republican Party has to be smart & strong if it wants to win in November. Can't allow lightweights to set up a spoiler Indie candidate!" He added "If dummy Bill Kristol actually does get a spoiler to run as an Independent, say good bye to the Supreme Court!"

Trump's reaction may, for the first time, actually be quite measured. Should Kristol's tweet prove true, it would almost certainly spell the end of Trump's impressive nomination season. Polling near neck-and-neck with Clinton, Trump would have nearly zero chance of beating Clinton should a Conservative candidate join the race. Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, won the 1992 election in a similar fashion, with independent billionaire Ross Perot splitting the Republican vote and handing Clinton the White House.

The "independent" candidate Kristol talks about, termed a "spoiler" by Trump would be born out of necessity. Trump is the most liberal of Republican candidates to run for the presidency in the history of the Republican Party. Trying to shore up conservative credentials late in the game has been an uphill task as Trump is on the record opposing many conservative views he now espouses. While his populist rhetoric has resonated with many disenfranchised voters, conservatives are the very vocal and powerful base of the Republican Party.

Going into the presidential election, Trump has yet to garner the support of many key Republicans including the entire Bush clan - including both Presidents Bush, the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, among many other key Republican leaders. Many Evangelicals and conservatives in general have been slow to come around in supporting the Trump campaign. Kristol has been a vocal critic of Trump from the outset and he is joined by many other "neocons" and Republican Party establishment voices. Running an "independent" candidate to oppose Trump and Clinton will almost definitely hand the election to Clinton. Why would the leaders of the Republican Party "through" the election, in direct opposition to their voter base? Does the Republican establishment prefer Clinton to Trump? It appears so.

Heading into the largest contest of the Democratic Party's nomination process, Bernie Sanders may pull off a last-minute win against Clinton. While the entirety of the 500 plus delegates awarded proportionately by California is not within Sanders' reach, a simple majority is. Ironically Sanders' victory in California will simultaneously be Hillary Clinton's as she will also have surpassed the threshold of delegates necessary for the nomination to be hers. While Clinton will be the presumptive Democratic nominee next Tuesday, she may enter the general election hobbled by the potential defeat Sanders will hand her in California. This leaves the "independent" candidate that Kristol is touting as a critical lifeline for Clinton.

The emergence of this "independent candidate" will simultaneously hand Clinton the presidency, irreparably damage the Republican Party, guarantee three Supreme Court appointees for the Democrats and forever change the face of the United States. With the demographic shifts that are already occurring in the U.S., the nation will shift considerably to the left in the coming years. Ironically, this shift will begin during the presidency of a centrist, Hillary Clinton.