Why is Trump doing well? His electoral and endorsement record is underwhelming, to say the least. He’s poison to suburban women, young people, and moderates. His intransigence on election conspiracies is appalling. Many voters who dislike Joe Biden would still crawl over broken glass to vote against Trump again.

Moreover, where are attacks from moribund Republican opponents? They don’t exist. Trump is rolling toward the GOP nomination, sans resistance.

The frontrunner usually comes under intense attack from rivals. Think Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton in 2008, Mitt Romney in 2012, Jeb Bush in 2016, or Biden in 2020. Republican primaries since 2008, in particular, have been especially spirited.

[Well, to be fair, the election cycle hasn’t really started in full either. Other candidates are waiting to see the full field first, as voters are also doing. DeSantis in particular will bigfoot the primary next week. Besides, the frontal attack strategy on Trump didn’t work out well in 2015 when applied early; it only raised his profile. That may be different in this cycle, since Trump is much more of a known quantity, but it’s just not necessary at the moment to test that hypothesis. I think the better question is why some of the lower-tier candidates — especially Haley — are attacking DeSantis rather than Trump. I also think that demonstrates which candidate those lower-tier entrants actually fear. — Ed]