Trumpism Strangles GOP Succession

When one politician dominates a party for a long stretch, potential successors are either suppressed or permanently associated with that leader’s liabilities, leaving a shallow, tainted bench and awkward primaries. The result is primaries that resemble a scramble for endorsement rather than a meritocratic contest, making the eventual nominee more dependent on early polling momentum and elite signals than usual. — This reframes 2028 not as a normal open contest but as a structural problem created by prolonged leader capture, affecting candidate emergence, voter choice, and general‑election competitiveness.