The Trumps ran the Republican Party and the executive branch like an organized crime family. This was unsurprising, given President Trump’s previous association with La Cosa Nostra, which held sway over the construction, gambling, and hospitality industries around New York through the 1980s. He considered his lawyer Roy Cohn’s concurrent representations of Tony Salerno, Carmine Galante, and John Gotti of the Genovese, Bonanno, and Gambino families a feature, not a bug.

Having risen in that milieu and embraced its values, such as they are, the Trumps should realize that they cannot keep running the syndicate after enduring an embarrassing public setback. Donald Trump Jr.’s tweet last week that “the total lack of action from virtually all of the ‘2024 GOP hopefuls’ is pretty amazing” was a threat, but properly understood, it’s a sign of weakness, not strength. Ambitious rivals should act ruthlessly, now, to seize control of the GOP.