Trump’s opponents are struggling to find a spotlight of their own in the 2024 campaign.
With the volume blaring on The Donald Trump Show, other Republican presidential hopefuls are struggling to make any noise of their own.
In the span of a week, Nikki Haley, former United Nations ambassador, campaigning at the U.S.-Mexico border, complained that “no one is talking about” immigration because of the focus on Trump’s “political drama.” Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to Ukraine was reduced to a blip on the media landscape, while Ron DeSantis avoided the spectacle and instead revived his war with Disney.
On the same day Trump was indicted in an alleged hush money scheme, the Florida governor was posing with puppies at a pet adoption event as his aides instructed reporters to leave.
“This is deja vu all over again,” said Terry Sullivan, who ran Marco Rubio’s 2016 campaign for president. “Trump dominates media coverage, making it impossible for his competitors to get any coverage or forward traction.”
The Republican presidential primary was always expected to revolve around Trump. But post-indictment, as Republicans rally to his defense — including, crucially, conservative talkers on Fox News — Trump’s opponents are confronting an even more damaging dynamic in race: Their inability to break through at all.
“It feels like fucking 2016,” said a Republican strategist who supports DeSantis and was granted anonymity to speak freely about the dynamics of the race. “Is there anything that can suck up as much political oxygen in the American political landscape as Trump? I don’t think so.”
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Trump’s opponents are struggling to find a spotlight of their own in the 2024 campaign.https://t.co/IxvSTV6eGQ
— POLITICO (@politico) April 10, 2023
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