The Republican primary is hurdling towards anticlimax. Donald Trump, instigating tumult with his criminality, commands a position in the race that is effectively unchallenged. His motley assortment of hopeful opponents are all making decidedly flaccid efforts. The race is not yet a foregone conclusion, but with the first debate approaching, Trump appears fully justified in insulating himself from a stage full of also-rans.

Perhaps the most significant surprise of this primary season has been the futility of Ron DeSantis’s campaign. Many of us fundamentally misread the proclivities of the MAGA-base electorate when assessing DeSantis’s chances, and that failure of understanding led observers to significantly overestimate the potential his campaign held. In short, the market for a non-Trump Trumpist has turned out to be vastly smaller than some people thought. It turns out that if a voter is a Trumper, he is likely simply to want Trump. DeSantis’s strategy, which involved spewing all the belligerence and nastiness of Donald Trump and balancing it, slightly, with a more functional personality, has hit the ground with a deafening thud.

One grain of truth that has persisted in the DeSantis story is that at least some Republican donors still prefer someone other than Donald Trump. The relationship between Trump and the donor class was always complicated, if not completely without logic. It has been demonstrated that sophisticated northern billionaires will tolerate a hayseed if the pol in question gives them a tax cut. Trump, more vulgar than Hugh Heffner, was merely an extreme iteration of this cynical trend. But the Hun with Orange Hair is also erratic and dangerous, an affront to the stability the conservative gentry has always prized, and that’s why many Florida and Texas elites still prefer a different Republican.

Who then? With Ron DeSantis having proven himself to be thoroughly unlikable, many donors have turned with eagerness to Senator Tim Scott. Unfortunately for Scott’s admirers, the South Carolinian simply has no path to the nomination. Scott would be a very attractive candidate for a different Republican Party. But the Republican Party that currently exists does not want an upbeat tribune of a multiracial future; it wants a warrior. It wants a white tribalist. It wants Donald Trump.

The remaining candidates are the Sam Brownbacks and Mike Gravels of the 2024 GOP field. They are little-known politicians running momentum-free campaigns and going nowhere. What’s striking about these impotent contenders is that nearly all of them refuse to attack Donald Trump. In fact, they defend him on a remarkably reliable basis, even Ron DeSantis who claims to “Never Back Down.” They are all in effect running against Trump as Trump supporters, and this hard wall of illogic is stalling their campaigns.