I’m not sure I buy that: Trump is a cult, and his cultists are going to have an absolute riotous fit if someone tries to depose him.
Short of him dying or doing something you just can’t ignore - like, say, he eats shit out of his diaper on national tv - he’s not going anywhere.
Vance isn’t smart enough to 6D chess his way into the presidency without his nominal constituency rioting over it, so I’m doubtful that’s his play.
He’s probably just going to pull the last-guy-in-the-room thing, since that’s the only person Trump listens to or remembers anyway which means you keep the cultists happy AND you get the figurehead to do what you want anyways without the mess.
I don’t either for all the reasons you stated. Trevor Noah was talking about a de facto African dictator who was in name only while other people ran the show.
I think it’ll be like that. They can’t openly push him out or there will be cult members storming the capital again, granted, the level of permissiveness that occurred the first time won’t happen while this admin is their target. No, they’ll let Trump bumble about while working their own angles. And Trump is such an easily manipulated dipshit he probably won’t even realize it.