Last year, several of Trump’s former White House aides and administration officials formed AFPI, which grew out of policy planning for his second term in office. The group has been called an “administration in waiting” and its leaders note that several of them were in the room when Trump made the biggest decisions of his presidency.

“I would say what the American people want are policies that improve their lives, regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and they had that under Donald Trump,” said Hogan Gidley, a former deputy White House press secretary who leads the institute’s Center of Election Integrity, which is pushing for more restrictive voter ID and absentee ballot laws. “And so, regardless of whether Donald Trump is a candidate or a kingmaker, I think that’s what the people want.”

For his part, Trump appears to see himself as both. He is expected to announce his third presidential bid as soon as this fall, though some allies have urged him to wait until after the November midterm elections, and has also been strategically endorsing candidates in secretary of state and legislative races who would play key roles in administration of the next presidential election.

The GOP has always hoped it could “sweat out the Trump years and … move on to somebody who reflected a more traditional understanding of conservative policy agenda,” said Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist and founder of the Republican Accountability Project, a political action committee that opposes candidates who promote the “Big Lie” pushed by Trump about the 2020 election.