Trump Controls the GOP Because He Can Destroy It

Jonathan Last: “Trump owns some non-trivial percentage of Republican voters. Maybe it’s 25 percent; maybe it’s 35 percent; maybe it’s 45 percent. These are people who would follow him if he were to decamp from the GOP.”

“This isn’t even an open secret: Republicans have been talking about it since Trump popped into first place in polling during the summer of 2015. Back then they refused to attack him because they feared that even if they did beat him, he would sabotage the party in revenge.”