For all the awesomeness that is Trump on a policy and energy level, he was an ineffective politician at a tactical level.
1) He was so worried about public image, that he was way too soft of the COVID nonsense. His base wanted him to be stronger on this issue. He punted to Fauci and created a monster.
2) He allowed the party to get completely blindsided by all of the changes to the voting laws that were happening under the guise of COVID. Instead of just predicting that there was going to be voting fraud, he should have been galvanizing support to fight the Dems in court. The fact that he did not shows a great deal of hubris.
3) He was not hands on enough with the DOJ. Where is the Durham report? Why let Barr have such a long chain?
In the end, Trump's own ego was his downfall. He assumed his popularity was going to provide enough armor that he could withstand the counter attacks from the establishment. This is what eventually did him in.
Trump can rally the American worker like no other personality. He is also a great delegator, assigning people to certain positions with specific tasks. But, he is not that great at making friends, and he is not hands-on enough to protect himself alone in the DC game of politics.
I think that a more seasoned politician such as DeSantis will not fall for the same kind of traps. I see DeSantis as slightly better on policy than Trump, and slightly weaker on tenacity. But he has shown himself to be pretty wiley on the counter-attack front. His dismantling of the 60 minutes hit piece was pretty impressive.
It takes a special kind of brainwashed useful idiot to politically defend government fraud, waste, and abuse.