Moreover, Trump’s rationale for skipping the debates keeps changing. According to Miller, it is that he is too far ahead in the polls to justify stooping to his opponents’ level. After all, the base of the Republican Party doesn’t like what they’re selling. But in May, Trump was reportedly telling associates that his presence on the debate stage would only lend credibility and grant publicity to his Republican critics. That is inconsistent with the notion that Trump is unafraid of the message his opponents are retailing. The former president also reportedly harbors a grudge against the hosts of those first two debates — Fox News Channel and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library — for their willingness to lend microphones to prominent Republicans who are not Donald Trump. But some reporting has also indicated that the former president is prudently concerned that a situation in which he is compelled to riff extemporaneously on the criminal indictments pending against him could jeopardize his legal position.
All told, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Trump’s is a uniquely disadvantageous position from which to launch a presidential campaign. He can’t speak candidly about what is likely to be his biggest political liability in a general election, and he cannot risk being confronted about that. He cannot resist the allure of a camera lens, nor can he countenance the existence of conservative institutions that acknowledge strains of thought on the right that depart from Trump centricity. He wants to project the pugilism that endeared him to Republican voters’ hearts, but he does not welcome the risks associated with sharing the spotlight.
[It’s hard to be seen as pugilistic when you won’t even get into the ring. If you can’t outbox Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, and (maybe) Chris Christie in a GOP debate, how can you outbox The Swamp? — Ed]
Join the conversation as a VIP Member