After the successful Trump impeachment in January 2021, he was permanently disqualified from office. The GOP candidate in 2024 would have to be someone different.
Trump wasn’t going away, however. As he, and the base, viewed it, he was the only meaningful voter in the upcoming primaries. He was the decider. The candidate who did the best job of sucking up to him and offering him the greatest amount of influence would be the winner.
It was a tight contest. All of the candidates were amazingly obsequious. But in the end, DeSantis stood out, just as he did during the Florida primaries in 2018. Trump gave him the nod, and the process was over, just like that.