If you had to come up with a description for the response of institutional Republicans to Donald Trump, it would be this: Too late.

At every turn, Republicans have been late to challenge Trumpism. Back in August, as Trump was just taking over the race, Right to Rise’s Mike Murphy famously explained, “If other campaigns wish that we’re going to uncork money on Donald Trump, they’ll be disappointed. Trump is, frankly, other people’s problem.” Right to Rise did a fine job of holding down Marco Rubio’s numbers by spending $35 million in ads against him. Because negative ads work. By the time they got around to spending $25,000 against Trump—not a typo—it was too late.