Initially I wasn't sold on Donald Trump - in fact, when he won the nomination I left the GOP, resigning as a local party official. It took me several years and writing a book about it to figure out that what Trump did was become the leader the TEA Party always sought. If you wonder why the TEA Party disappeared after 2012 for the most part, imagine if Trump had followed through with the abortive 2012 campaign he started? Perhaps he would have won the nomination then and ousted Obama, making him a one-term president.
I think, being as smart as he is, Trump realized the GOP needed a Romney loss to eliminate that wing of the party and make it easier for his America First philosophy. And he won in 2016 because all those TEA Party voters resurfaced as his base - remember, they registered Republican in response to Obama but their vote was split in 2012 and Romney couldn't attract that coalition back that November.
Initially I wasn't sold on Donald Trump - in fact, when he won the nomination I left the GOP, resigning as a local party official. It took me several years and writing a book about it to figure out that what Trump did was become the leader the TEA Party always sought. If you wonder why the TEA Party disappeared after 2012 for the most part, imagine if Trump had followed through with the abortive 2012 campaign he started? Perhaps he would have won the nomination then and ousted Obama, making him a one-term president.
I think, being as smart as he is, Trump realized the GOP needed a Romney loss to eliminate that wing of the party and make it easier for his America First philosophy. And he won in 2016 because all those TEA Party voters resurfaced as his base - remember, they registered Republican in response to Obama but their vote was split in 2012 and Romney couldn't attract that coalition back that November.