“We want to bring unity to the Republican Party,” Trump said. “We have to bring unity—it’s so much easier.” Politicians who had been “vicious” to him throughout the primary, he said, were now calling him asking to come on board.

But unity may not be so easily summoned. As Trump’s hostile takeover of the party drew to a close, many of its leaders, particularly members of the conservative intelligentsia, were in revolt. George Will had denounced “collaborationists” who sided with Trump, branding them “ineligible to participate in the party’s reconstruction.” David Brooks had proclaimed “a Joe McCarthy moment,” adding, “People will be judged by where they stood at this time.” They had stood athwart Trump’s nomination, yelling, “Stop!”—but the Republican voters had ignored them, and now they feared their party was lost.

Could it ever be regained? Many partisans surely would rally around the nominee like they always did, not seeing what was supposedly so world-historically terrible about Trump, or seeing his opponent as a greater evil. But to the anti-Trump faction, the GOP they cherished for decades as a vehicle for right-of-center ideas seemed to be no more. It was likely too late for a third-party candidate to swoop into the breach. With Trump’s nomination, the old party establishment went into exile, perhaps never to return. On Twitter, conservative operatives, writers, policy wonks and talk-show hosts gravely lined up to turn in their Republican registrations. “I am a fiscal conservative and I am a social conservative,” declared blogger Ben Howe. “That will not change. But I will not vote for an egomaniacal authoritarian.” The New York Daily News’s cover showed a red, white, and blue elephant in a casket.

Trump would lose the election—of that these writers were sure. But Trump, at his lectern in his lobby, surrounded by his highly polished family and a large group of men in suits, foresaw something else. He would “go after” Hillary Clinton. He would attack trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement. He would build up the military and take care of veterans and “bring back jobs” for everyone, including the Hispanics and African Americans. “Our theme is very simple: It’s Make America Great Again,” he said. “We will start winning again, and you will be so proud of this country.”

After Trump exited, the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” came on the speakers—a fitting message from the newly minted Republican nominee to his party’s old elites. It was followed by the Puccini aria “Nessun Dorma,” whose soaring final verse—the one where Pavarotti hits the dramatic high A—translates thus:

Vanish, o night! Fade, you stars! Fade, you stars! At dawn, I will win! I will win! I will win!

The final days of the Cruz campaign—and, by extension, the desperate effort to save the party from Trump—were a desperate and humiliating spectacle.