quit when it was close with Buchanan in the primary and realized even if he did win that he'd have no shot. Didn't really know the details there until looking it up, was well off my radar at the time, just a strange precursor.

I think it's a fairly common view Perot, Buchanan and the Reform party stuff in the 90s was relevant to Trump's success in 2016, the way he positioned himself was kind of in between those two guys. "Anti-Washington", trade, espousing "non-intervention". Not sure what Perot said on immigration, Trump obviously was hardline like Buchanan. Trump's inclination was much less right wing on social issues vs Buchanan (abortion, gay rights when that was an increasingly important issue in the 90s and 00s), more like Perot there. This Politico article calls Perot the "father of Trump", I don't know if that's right, but it's not crazy to see the relation.

--

As it was, his race revealed clear evidence of a constituency in national politics, radicalized in its disaffection with the major parties and with a nagging sense of American decline — a constituency that didn’t go away even after Perot did.