I agree from what I've seen, MAGA isn't all that enamored with Vance. Having Thiel that close to the oval is effed up, but will Vance have the means to keep the GOP in lockstep? Does he have the same access to the carrots, the whips and the kompromat?
Yeah, I just can't see all the Republicans supplicating themselves for Vance. At worst, he'd be a figurehead with the same people actually running the country as are now (Theil et al).
I actually think he put the worst people in charge because they're also basically clown-car figureheads who are replaceable if the clamoring gets loud enough without disrupting the damage that's being done by the P2025 crowd.
I think you're entirely right. I would guess that about half of the crazy crap coming out of the administration is Trump's insane whims, with the really serious stuff coming from Project 2025. It's painfully easy to give Trump an idea and make him think he came up with it. He's a fascist puppet.
Vance even more so! He has no ideas of his own and he knows the only reason he's where he's at is because of the people he's going to have to serve. Which is definitely not the American people.