Well, as you well know, I’m sure, publish or perish, while pithy, isn’t quite the whole picture. Published papers come out of research, and research comes out of grant funding. If you’re not getting grants, you’re not getting published, and if you’re not getting published, you’re not getting grants. Grants are the lifeblood of the academic department. It’s how they pay your salary. If you don’t have grant money coming in to pay yourself and your staff, they may float you for a little while, but not long. Not long at all.
It seems obvious that if zerO had desired an academic career, he had the connections to get the specific grants. He may even have investigated that route and in so doing, met the very folks who decided he would serve the cause best as an elected official.
Grants, while useful, are not always required. My SIL teaches engineering at a university, and you’re right, she needs lots of grants to keep working on her projects. My husband, OTOH, teaches business (which typically has plenty of its own funding from various donors) and does not have to find any grants at all. He only needs to publish so that the School of Business can maintain its accreditation.