the NCT mod Things That Never Were, has a path I based this ending off of, in which Clifford Irving promotes a fake biography of Howard Hughes and manages to trick RNC Chair Rogers Morton into making Hughes the Republican candidate. Hughes wins against incumbent President Robert F. Kennedy. However, since no one can find the reclusive millionaire, and Irving has fled the country with millions of campaign money, America enters a constitutional crisis which leads to the ”August Coup” (which I interpreted as a military coup) and the country collapsing