Many Republicans dream of a post-Trump GOP

Donald Trump keeps telling his supporters to vote for him in 2024 and they “don’t have to vote again.” Some Republicans are growing increasingly worried this is true—but not in the bye-bye-democracy way that Trump seems to intend.

They’re worried that if Trump is defeated in 2024, he will leave behind a broken Republican Party that will have no path to power for generations. Or that even if Trump wins, he could drag his twisted cult of personality into a condition from which it can’t recover.

From the daily appearance of Republican speakers at the Democratic National Convention to a list of over 200 former Republican staffers and former Trump supporters, many Republicans are lining up behind the effort to defeat Trump. They’re not doing it just to help save American democracy, either. Many are doing it because they desperately want Trump to go away so that their party has a chance of surviving.