Only former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Florida governor Ron DeSantis levelled any significant criticisms of Trump, while the other candidates seemed more intent on attacking each other. South Carolina senator Tim Scott notably got into a spat with Nikki Haley about the cost of curtains in her official residence as ambassador to the United Nations. Yes, curtains.

The GOP has fundamentally shifted to the positions Trump championed in 2016. By and large, the candidates agreed on hawkishness on both illegal immigration and China: Haley even proposed suspending normal trade relations with the latter until it tamps down on the flow of fentanyl into the US.

But, though these are now practically settled issues, Trump’s rivals can’t match his original madcap heterogeneity on policy. Trump often attacks his rivals in the GOP from both the Right and the centre — and sometimes even from the Left (as seen in his recent break with pro-life activists). Many of his challengers have therefore been forced to try and position themselves to the Right of Trump. But it’s still unclear what the most effective strategy looks like.

[I too was struck that the only candidates to directly challenge Trump last night were Christie and DeSantis. Christie did so on personal terms, while DeSantis did so more on performance failures in office. The rest of the candidates attacked each other, to some extent allowing themselves to get baited into that response by the moderators. Fred lays out a pretty good warning about what will happen if the field doesn’t do more to explicitly challenge Trump on substance. — Ed]