I think Vance’s response depends greatly on if he takes direction from his handlers in Heritage Foundation or if he gains an ego and believes he’s the new cult leader. They learned their lesson with Pence who, with the obligatory “fuck Mike Pence”, still wasn’t invested enough to commit treason.

Vance just doesn’t have the twisted charisma Trump has to be the cult guy. Heritage knows it, but they knew he had a shelf-life and only needed to get in and secure their position. The Third Reich didn’t survive Hitler but he wouldn’t let go (and they couldn’t get rid of him) until it was too late. The Soviet Union survived the death of Stalin because nobody after him tried to recreate his larger than life image, they maintained the control that was established under his reign.

If Vance does what he’s told he doesn’t need to be Trump, and if the regime continues to disregard democracy, the courts, and even declining public opinion among conservatives that rode the wave but are now leopard fodder, they don’t need another Trump, just an institution to defend. These fuckers are embedded and will be difficult to remove.