I’d argue that Donald trump was third party at the start

Donald Trump has always been their boy, even through his trust buying phase.

In 2004, a friend who had worked with Trump, came back to our home town for new years, in our fave pub, and told us what a joke of a played narcissist he was, being primed by his psychopathic handlers for a puppet presidency. It stopped seeming like an absurd plausibility about a decade later.

He's their boy.

Bernie, alas, also, not the token virtue paragon we've had presented to us to placate us with as much as we'd like him to be. Solution space may be elsewhere yet.

No, I really don't, did you see 2016 and 2024. They voted in utter incompetence rather than consider it. I agree with you that it's incredibly frustrating but in order for a third party to be viable ranked choice would need to be introduced. It's a bitter pill.