The Failure of Pseudo-Trumpism

Now that Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the Republican primary race and endorsed Donald Trump, the race for the party’s presidential nomination has become more than just a battle of personalities — finally, it is a battle of ideas. With DeSantis’s pseudo-Trumpism firmly rejected, primary voters now have a choice between two ideological visions for the future of the party and the United States: Trumpism and pre-Trumpism. …

And for the same reason, if Pseudo-Trumpism is this month’s loser, then next month’s will surely be Trump’s remaining challenger. For who is Nikki Haley but the pre-Trumpist tasked with putting the old band of Bush-era libertarians, neoconservatives and corporate globalists back together?

[Frankly, this was the same question that the 2016 primary settled, especially in regard to Ted Cruz. The difference this time was whether voters wanted to stick with Trump despite his baggage as the standard-bearer of Trumpism or maybe wanted a fresh start on sustaining it with DeSantis. Given the results in Iowa and the wide gaps in polling in other upcoming primaries, we seem to have settled that question too. — Ed]