He won it anyway.
The 2024 presidential election began in
earnest last week when eight members of
the Republican Party met for the first GOP
primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
But more important than those presidential
hopefuls who were actually on stage was,
as moderator Bret Baier put it, “the elephant
not in the room.” Former President Donald
Trump, who is currently leading in primary
polls by around 50 points, decided not to
participate, instead doing an interview with
former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on
the social media platform formerly known
as Twitter. While Trump himself was not
present at the debate, his influence upon it,
and the Republican Party writ large, was
palpable.
All eight individuals standing on stage in
Milwaukee are, ostensibly, running against
Trump in this primary. And yet, through-
out the night, the criticism of the former
president was tepid, if present at all. Former
governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, who
has been the most outspoken against Trump
since joining the Republican primary race,
at least attempted to land a hit on Trump,
saying his actions in the days after the 2020
election were “beneath the office of the
President of the United States.” He was,
however, immediately booed by the audi-
ence. Former Vice President Mike Pence
was similarly condemned by the audience
when he critiqued Trump for attempting to
stage a coup that endangered Pence’s life.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur,
then said, “President Trump, I believe, was
the best president of the 21st century.”
These vignettes are, to me, indicative of
the bigger problem within the Republican
Party: nobody actually wants to beat Trump.
For all the think-pieces discussing Republi-
cans’ desire to “move on” from the former
president, no one is willing to take the ac-
tions necessary to actually create distance
between Trump and the GOP. The Republi-
can primary debate last week demonstrates
a party-wide collective action problem: it
would be in everyone’s collective interest
to have a Republican nominee who has not
been charged with 91 criminal counts and
who has not lost the popular vote twice, but
it is not in anyone’s individual interest to ac-
tually take Trump on. And those, like Chris-
tie, Pence and former Arkansas Gov. Asa
Hutchinson, who have tried to push back
against Trump and his dominance of the
Republican Party, are mocked and ridiculed.
This collective action problem was cryst-
allised in a single moment when the debate
moderators asked the supposed presiden-
tial hopefuls if they would support former
Trump if he were to win the Republican
nomination, even if he had been previously
convicted. Every candidate except Hutchin-
son raised their hand. For a moment, it
seemed like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
might not join in support of the former pres-
ident, but once he saw which way the winds
were blowing, he quickly followed. In my
opinion, this should be the most straight-
forward way to create distance between the
GOP and Trump, and to actually land any
blow on the former president. For decades,
the Republican Party has prided itself on be-
ing the party of law and order. It should be
easy to say, “No one is above the law, not
even a former president. A convicted crimi-
nal should not receive our party’s nomina-
tion.”
But they can’t say that. They can’t be-
cause they don’t actually want to put up
any fight against Trump. They are afraid
of him. They are afraid of his base. They
would rather lose to him by 30 points than
risk getting on the bad side of people they
claim they want to lead. People who these
politicians are following blindly.
Former President Trump did not attend
the GOP primary debate in Milwaukee be-
cause he, ultimately, did not have to. He
won without even attending, simply by
proving no one else there has the will or de-
sire to beat him.
