With Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspending his campaign to be the Republican presidential candidate, former US president Donald Trump and the US’ former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley are competing for the nomination.
DeSantis said: “it’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance … He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”
Once considered Trump’s most formidable opponent, DeSantis sought to position himself as an alternative to the former president. But because he was slow to “meaningfully criticize” Trump, he was unable to “peel away” enough of the latter’s supporters.
On the other hand, his embrace of Trump-style hard-right policies alienated moderate Republicans who chose to look elsewhere in their search for a credible candidate who can “steer the GOP in a different direction” from Trump.
No wonder following his second-place finish in Iowa, DeSantis and his team realized they “don’t have a clear path to victory”. His failure to offer any new thinking means that despite being entangled in endless lawsuits, Trump has taken a concrete step forward to becoming the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump is good at attributing the US’ domestic woes to his opponents’ “failures” and portraying himself as the one true champion of the US people. Thus he has made China a scapegoat for the US’ unemployment issues and other economic problems, and held the Democrats accountable for not standing up to it.
His victory in the US presidential election in 2016 marked the beginning of an “America-first” approach to complicated international issues, featuring selfishness, unilateralism and protectionism. He left his successor a more divided US society as well as limited space to overhaul his legacy.
The ongoing crises in Ukraine and the Middle East provide Trump with golden opportunities again to lash out at the Joe Biden administration’s poor crisis management and control, which is sadly true. Trump’s claim that he can help broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict within 24 hours once reelected has already grabbed the attention of many neutral voters.
Although it is too early to predict the result of the US presidential election, DeSantis’ withdrawal on the weekend must have prompted most stakeholders in the world to advance their preparation for the possibility of Trump’s reelection.
