“The Tea Party evolved into the Donald Trump phenomenon”
This ^^^^^^. The Tea Party was instrumental in getting Republicans the majority in the House and Senate. Now they were big time in getting Trump elected.
Exactly. That’s why the Tea Party had such great success in changing Congress during the midterms, but failed in 2012 to take back the White House. A conservative grassroots leader never emerged, and we were stuck with Romney, who tried hard to distance himself from it for that mythical “moderate vote” (the classic fool’s game that destroys most Republican candidates).
The establishment and media forced Romney on us. They tried again with Jeb Bush. This time, we took refused and took back the reins.