Putin is no different, which is why he promotes a constellation of mini-Putins in the states around him: advocates of nationalism and traditionalism, fronted by a self-aggrandizing strongman who sets up a cronyist system of state-backed businessmen. It’s why he supports this style of right-wing party in Europe. So of course Putin wants Trump to reshape politics in the United States. He wants him to break down the Republican Party’s ideological promotion of liberty and representative government and replace it with Putin’s own style of government.

You could call this Putinist style an ideology, but that’s not quite right. It’s what takes over when ideas disappear and people are driven by emotions, loyalties, and resentments that are pre-ideological or sub-ideological—including hatred of an “establishment” that is not very well defined, except that it includes anyone who disagrees with them. All of this is a pretty fair description of how Trump operates and the mentality to which he appeals.

But the very thing that makes Trump potentially dangerous is also what makes him politically weak. He doesn’t represent a philosophy or a movement. He only represents himself and the inexplicable (and limited) appeal of his own personality. At this point, it doesn’t look like that’s going to carry him into the White House—and it also looks like it hasn’t inspired any successful imitators.

That’s good news for those of us who want to try to salvage the Republican Party afterwards, because it means that when voters clear away Trump in November, there won’t be much in the way of a Trumpist movement left over.