Chuck Todd: How to pick the battle against Trump

It’s just before the official start of the 2024 primaries — and if you are wondering what happened to the debate about the future of the GOP, you aren’t alone.

It’s the last week before the official start of the 2024 primary season — and if you’re wondering what happened to the debate about the future of the Republican Party, you aren’t alone. 

As Iowa prepares to vote, the final ad campaigns appear to be focused more on Nikki Haley than on Donald Trump. Both Trump and Ron DeSantis have Haley attack ads up this week. The move is tactically understandable: She’s the candidate on the rise, who most likely has the highest personal ratings among those GOP voters still undecided. So taking her down a notch makes sense for Trump and DeSantis.

But from a historical perspective, this lack of focus on Trump — and the future of the party and the nation that Trump promises — is head-scratching. In 50 years, when historians look back at this campaign, they will no doubt examine it through the prism of whether the GOP wanted Trump or a new direction. But that’s not the campaign that’s actually taking place.

There isn’t much of a debate about the direction of the GOP. While I have no doubt that both Haley and DeSantis believe the GOP under Trump is headed in a terrible direction, neither appears to have the guts to say that.

Instead, the hardest hits on Trump from either of his chief challengers are that he has “his issues” (a DeSantis staple, as part of his riff that Trump is running for “his issues,” Haley is running for her “donor issues,” and DeSantis is running on the “voters’ issues”). It’s some seriously weak tea when it comes for making a case against Trump.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/chuck-todd-pick-battle-trump-rcna133022

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