One month ago, the current president stepped aside from his reelection campaign, allowing the vice president to run instead. The party wanted him to step aside. Had he a personality cult, it wouldn't have happened this way.

The vice president became the candidate especially due to her existing role as the president's 2024 running mate, as his campaign funds already belonged to her too and thus she could freely use them. Lots of people are excited about her candidacy, feel optimistic that she can win, and are motivated to actively support her, but that doesn't mean she has a personality cult. Democratic voters would be equally excited about any Democratic candidate who had a chance of winning this election.

By contrast, Donald Trump has a personality cult insofar as he tells obvious lies and self-contradictions, demeans others and brags about himself, and behaves in obviously unethical ways, and everyone around him just says "Yes, sir" and funnels him big money — and this has been going on for nine years. The party didn't have a 2020 platform except to reelect him — specifically to elevate him rather than to work for any set of policies. And despite his loss in 2020 and the criminal charges he still faces for his behavior during that election, he's running again, which doesn't seem entirely prudent for the Republicans. The Republicans could (as the Democrats recently did) choose another candidate. They didn't, because they have a personality cult around Trump in a way that the Democrats don't have a cult around any Democratic candidate.