Trump will cast a long shadow over Republican party despite defeat

For Republican leaders it was, perhaps, the worst of all possible worlds. A victory for Donald Trump in the US presidential election would have preserved their power. A landslide defeat might have eviscerated Trumpism and finally broken the spell, giving them leverage to steer the party in a new direction. But neither of these scenarios happened. Trump gained more than 72m votes, beating his 2016 total and every presidential candidate in history…