Bill Weld’s 2020 challenge will be a spectacular failure. And he deserves it.

Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld officially announced Monday, to the applause of almost no one, that he will challenge President Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination. His bid will go down in flames, as it deserves.

Weld has long marched to the tune of his own inner drummer, but this drummer is wildly offbeat. His campaign strategist says Weld will place a major emphasis on the New Hampshire primary. That makes theoretical sense, as New Hampshire’s GOP has long been more moderate than that of the nation as a whole. But a recent Emerson College poll showed Trump had an 80 percent job-approval rating among Granite State Republicans and that he would whip Weld 82-to-18 if the race were held today. To quote Rick Perry, “Oops.”

Weld would be a hapless, hopeless candidate even if he were not running against an incumbent who remains quite popular with the GOP rank and file. He has flitted to and fro across the political map, accepting a nomination to become ambassador to Mexico from President Bill Clinton and endorsing Barack Obama against Republican presidential nominee John McCain in 2008.