Rich Lowry, longtime conservative voice, writes in the Boston Herald about the hold Donald Trump still has on the Republican Party. As Lowry notes, since leaving office Trump hasn't covered himself with glory and yet commands the loyalty of roughly 30% of Republican voters.
The trick for DeSantis, or anyone else who seeks the GOP nomination, is how to defeat Trump without alienating that big chunk of GOP voters. It is no easy task, it may not even be possible.
The GOP's Trump problem is that he isn't a team player; he's on Team Trump. He genuinely loves our country and his kids. Beyond that, I'm not certain he has other loyalties.
If someone other than Trump gets the 2024 nomination, can that person get the Trump loyalists' votes? Another nominee might be able to (a) win the votes of suburbanites who don't like Trump and (b) they might not so intensely motivate Democrats to bother to vote as did Trump.
As it stands right now, those who may run against Trump are not being critical of him. He is being critical of them. At some point that will have to change and it will become interesting. Stay tuned.
