Presidential succession is never a particularly clean process. Every four years, the two dominant parties do what they can to make one candidate their standard-bearer for the foreseeable future, with the expectation that they also help groom various junior members of the party’s backbench towards future success. Obama beats Hillary but makes her the secretary of state, Kamala takes VP, et cetera, et cetera. There is a certain amount of chaos in any primary season — you never know when a dark horse candidate will come down an escalator yelling about Mexicans — but for the most part, the major players are clear before voting even begins.

This is not the case for 2024, and especially not for 2028. The Democrats are struggling with the fact that their most likely candidate is the old-as-dirt incumbent, and their backup has proven to be politically incompetent. The Republicans, meanwhile, are struggling with the fact that their most likely candidate is the old-as-dirt former president they very much want to be rid of, but can’t because their core base doesn’t really like anyone else. That has given us a very loony run-up to what will surely be a very loony primary race, which is kicking off now via some extremely petty sparring between two of the most annoying dudes around.