Not sure of that. If the GOP campaign engine was able to play it well, they could have turned Trump into Jesus 2.0 for the Christian nationalist movement, and retained the fanaticism of the movement while switching over to a better useful idiot who was easier to manage. Part of the problem of Trump is that he is difficult to control, and his voracious ego keeps driving him to make poorly-considered policy and publicity decisions. (Remember the White House feeding McDonalds and Wendys to the Clemson Tigers. Crap like that is continuous around Trump.)
The Michael Flynns and Roger Stones want someone as charismatic as Trump, but who is easier to placate.
The better thing would be for Trump to keep doing public appearances while getting more and more demented and banal, which will toxify the pure hate speech with grumpy old man rants. Then when he quits or dies, there’s no resurrection and new church, and the GOP will have to find themselves a charismatic leader from the cold again.
I would have preferred no attempt, but if it was going to happen we would all have been better off had it succeeded.
Not sure of that. If the GOP campaign engine was able to play it well, they could have turned Trump into Jesus 2.0 for the Christian nationalist movement, and retained the fanaticism of the movement while switching over to a better useful idiot who was easier to manage. Part of the problem of Trump is that he is difficult to control, and his voracious ego keeps driving him to make poorly-considered policy and publicity decisions. (Remember the White House feeding McDonalds and Wendys to the Clemson Tigers. Crap like that is continuous around Trump.)
The Michael Flynns and Roger Stones want someone as charismatic as Trump, but who is easier to placate.
The better thing would be for Trump to keep doing public appearances while getting more and more demented and banal, which will toxify the pure hate speech with grumpy old man rants. Then when he quits or dies, there’s no resurrection and new church, and the GOP will have to find themselves a charismatic leader from the cold again.