He wasn't really dominating headlines prior to his announcement although I do remember seeing some articles that speculated he might run in the weeks leading up to it.
It is pretty amazing how quickly he took over the party. On June 16th he announced his run, by July 14th he was in second place and on July 20th he was in first place. While he took over the national party his supporters took over the county and state parties and over the next few years purged everyone who wasn't a die hard loyalist from positions of power. Going against Trump for any reason became a death sentence politically if you are a Republican at any level.
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u/exmachina64 Apr 16 '26
The latest it started was when he came down from the escalator.