I'm not so sure someone would have replaced him. If Trump hadn't landed that TV show, I think his empire would have collapsed. Trump very narrowly beat Hillary. There's a good chance she would have won against anyone else. The Supreme Court would be left leaning. 4 years of the Trump nightmare would have gone at least slightly the opposite direction. The world would look a lot different today.
A few decades of Fox and the conservative agenda definitely have had their consequences, but the way everything landed seems like an unlikely distracted scenario.
I think Trump is much more connected with Russia. Is much more brazen, because he's so incredibly stupid. Those two things have pushed us to where we are very quickly. Desantis is an evil piece of shit too, but he would have tested the waters a bit before each shitty act.
Also, I don't think he would have beat Hillary. I think Trump a big part of why he won, was because of the novelty. It was a joke at the time. It grew into something awful, but I doubt it was the plan at the time.
In so many words, I said that we wouldn't have another Trump if Trump died, that we'd have to deal with DeSantis, inferring that they're separate people (additionally that DeSantis would be easier to deal with)...sounds like I should've spelled it out so it's easier to understand
Edit- the short, sarcastic version is down voted while the explained version is upvoted 🤷♂️