Trump and Republican Backup Candidates

Trump blusters and fulminates more than ever, but he’s besieged by multiple criminal and civil investigations and legal actions. The Republican politicians who have long curried his favor may very quickly find that he’s more of a liability than an asset. He may fade as fast as a streaking meteor. Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, who has been positioning himself to take Trump’s place as the presumptive Republican 2024 presidential candidate, is himself in danger of being sidelined as a result of his blunder in abducting migrant refugees and shipping them to an island off the coast of Massachusetts. Right-wing authoritarian-seeking Republicans needn’t be anxious, however. They have a deep bench of equally unprincipled demagogue-type office seekers.