Todd Muller had been tipped as a future National Prime Minister since before he entered Parliament.
So how did his ambitions disintegrate so quickly?
It was short and anything but sweet. From the moment Todd Muller took the reins he had a problem.
Hope for a wave of Muller mania gave way to 53 days of Muller mayhem - lurching from fumble to crisis and back again.
First he capitulated over a Make America Great Again hat, then he announced an all-white front bench and haplessly trying to defend it.
His caucus began leaking against him. Newshub gained access to secret internal polls showing him doing worse than the guy he brutally knifed.
Then last week, the week from hell arrived: rogue MP Hamish Walker hurtled the party into scandal, admitting he leaked sensitive COVID-19 patient data.
It went from bad to worse - Muller forcing Walker's resignation then attempting to mop up the mess.
"This is an isolated incident," he said.
Except it wasn't - it turns out he knew one of his senior MPs Michael Woodhouse had been leaked to as well. Muller was asked specifically about Woodhouse and didn't come clean.
Eventually it was all too much, Muller resigning in a statement on Tuesday morning saying: "The role has taken a heavy toll on me personally, and on my family, and this has become untenable from a health perspective".
Muller had the shortest reign of any National Party leader by a long shot - just 53 days - and no one in his caucus saw it coming.
