In the second week of January, three years ago, Donald Trump was widely seen as a spent force. On Jan. 13, 2021, the Republican was impeached by a bipartisan majority in the House, which charged the outgoing president with “incitement of insurrection” on the heels of the Jan. 6 attack.

Two days earlier, his party’s then-leader in the chamber, Kevin McCarthy, privately told members of his conference, “I’ve had it with this guy. What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that, and nobody should defend it.” The same week, his party’s Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, publicly condemned Trump for feeding “lies” to an angry mob. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government, which they did not like,” he added.

Around the same time, members of Trump’s own White House Cabinet raised the prospect of forcing him from office by way of the 25th Amendment.

Much of the political world came to believe that there would be no political recovery for the failed and defeated president. He’d gone too far. His days were over. It was time for the GOP to make its adjustment to a post-Trump world.

In the second week of January, three years later, Trump won the Iowa caucuses by roughly 30 points. NBC News reported overnight:

Donald Trump has won the Iowa caucuses, NBC News projects, cementing his firm status as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Trump, who is aiming to be the first former president since Grover Cleveland in the 1890s to return to office after losing re-election to a second consecutive term, scored a record-breaking showing Monday in the first contest of 2024.

Headed into the first nominating contest of the 2024 cycle, there was little doubt as to who would prevail. There were questions, however, about the scope of the former president’s inevitable victory.

Those questions received unambiguous answers from Republicans in the Hawkeye State. Iowa has 99 counties, and Trump won 98 of them. The old GOP record for the most lopsided victory in a competitive Iowa caucus was Bob Dole’s 13-point win in 1996, and Trump more than doubled that margin this year.

Members of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign team hoped to keep Trump below the 50% threshold so that they could plausibly tell GOP donors and insiders that the former president hasn’t yet locked up a majority of the party. That talking point evaporated with Trump’s 51% showing.

By any fair measure, this was the most lopsided victory for a non-incumbent in a competitive race in the history of the Iowa caucuses. There is no spin to deny what is plainly true: This was not close.

It did not, however, have to be this way. After Trump left office three years ago, the Republican became the worst version of himself. He launched a campaign of deceptions to rewrite the story of his failed term. He scammed his followers. He allegedly committed a variety of felonies. He committed to an authoritarian vision of government. He publicly toyed with calls for political violence. A jury even found him liable for sexually abusing a woman.

Iowa Republicans took on a unique responsibility: They were given an opportunity to rescue their party from additional madness. What’s more, these same GOP voters were presented with plausible alternatives in the form of qualified and experienced far-right contenders who practically begged them for consideration.

They handed Trump a lopsided victory anyway.

“Donald J. Trump’s decisive victory in Iowa revealed a new depth to the reservoir of devotion inside his party,” a New York Times analysis summarized. “For eight years, he has nurtured a relationship with his supporters with little precedent in politics. He validates them, he entertains them, he speaks for them and he uses them for his political and legal advantage. This connection — a hard-earned bond for some, a cult of personality to others — has unleashed one of the most durable forces in American politics.”

In light of the results in Iowa, that bond between the radical and his radicalized supporters will not break anytime soon.