Should DeSantis falter, there is no second option other than Trump. This is an uncomfortable truth the GOP must confront. It’s also why they cannot fully move on from Trump’s one-term presidency no matter how desperately they want to. Trump himself is not going anywhere. He’s made that painfully obvious by now — his goal seems to be to re-litigate the 2020 election and his personal grievances stemming from it from now until the 2024 primaries. This is unsustainable and the national media is licking their chops at the prospect of talking about the January 6 Capitol riot until then as well. DeSantis more or less offers a clean break from all of that. He has been picking and choosing the parts of the Trumpworld platform that suit him, like taking on Big Tech censorship, critical race theory in schools, strong immigration policy and punching back at the media in a more refined and focused way. This approach seems to reflect where the party appetite is. However one major falter, and A New Hope becomes The Empire Strikes Back. All of the eggs are in the DeSantis basket.