As they look ahead to next year’s midterms and beyond, there should be an obvious lesson for Republicans. They will be more competitive if they do not have Trump leading the party. If Republicans rally around another nominee in 2024, they have a chance to secure control of Congress and retake the White House. If they nominate Trump anyway, it puts Democrats back in the ballgame…

Instead, there needs to be an actual conservative, or several, willing to challenge Trump. This person needs to have unimpeachable credentials on the issues and should spend the campaign discussing those issues instead of jumping at every chance to hop on CNN and denounce the Trump outrage du jour. This person wouldn’t run as an anti-Trump candidate but would be willing to argue that the Republican Party needs to move on from 2020, focus on Biden’s failures, and lay out a vision for how to fight the Left and land actual conservative policy wins.

Right now, there is some understandable trepidation among potential candidates about the prospect of challenging Trump. Were he to run, Trump would start off with a significant base of support and unrivaled media attention. Anybody who runs against him would be given the typical Trump treatment, not only potentially costing that candidate the nomination but severely damaging all future prospects. Conservative politicians who are young enough may determine, if Trump runs, that they are better off averting Trump’s fire and waiting another four years rather than incinerating their reputations among the base.