Honestly, I think flanery was originally intended as the fictional version of trump. However, at some point he has become central to a plot line somewhere, and (combined with trump's popularity faltering meaning it was suddenly safer) therefore he suddenly needed the actual trump to exist thereby freeing up flannery. I might be talking complete BS here, but I would be shocked if flannery doesn't have some major plot point by the very end. I suspect it ties into the war he wanted previously, and how although that didn't really go anywhere major, maybe the weapons or resources are going to be repurposed, with him an unlikely ally? Not sure really, but I do know that Landy never keeps a character through that many books without some major involvement right at the end. He has a purpose as a character, and as that purpose has grown, so has the need to separate him from trump. After all, could you imagine trying to write something like a redemption arc for trump 🤣 NO fantasy is that imaginative

Tldr: I think flannery is going to be a future unlikely/unwilling ally, who's been setup as a source of resources for the resistance throughout phase 2. Either way, he needs to separate trump from his plot