Even worse, when the person sitting behind the Resolute Desk is that easily manipulated, he might also come under the influence of people who aren’t morons but who want to advance their own agendas by preying on presidential witlessness. Think here of John Eastman, the conservative legal scholar who convinced Trump in the days leading up to Jan. 6 that Mike Pence could single-handedly act to keep Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Add it all up and it becomes clear why the worst possible outcome three years from now would be Donald Trump winning back the White House. That would be vastly worse than Pence winning or DeSantis winning or Nikki Haley winning or really anyone else in the GOP winning, except, perhaps, for those like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene or Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers, who might actually be as moronic as Trump himself.

The dangerous and demoralizing truth is that the GOP is now divided into three camps: an endangered species of dissenters like Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who reject the drift of the party into outright lunacy; a larger portion of people (including Greene, Rogers, and others) who may well be as thick-headed as Trump himself; and a much larger number of people who have resigned themselves to playing along with the stupidity encouraged by the man running the Republican show. The last group includes pretty much everyone entertaining a run for the White House in 2024 who isn’t named Trump.