Democrats take aim at Trump as Republicans admit his nomination is inevitable

The first contest in the Republican presidential primary isn’t for another 3 1/2 months, but Democrats are already preparing to face off against former President Donald Trump in the general election.

This week, as seven other GOP presidential hopefuls struggled to break through at the second Republican primary debate, President Joe Biden’s campaign released an ad that contrasted Biden’s record with Trump’s, ignoring the other contenders.

Biden gave a speech in Arizona at an event honoring the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, where he issued a stark warning about another Trump presidency.

“This MAGA threat is the threat to the brick and mortar of our democratic institutions,” Biden said, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” sloganeering.

American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic opposition research firm, released an opposition research book the night of the debate that provides other Democratic groups and campaigns with a roadmap for how to run against Trump for a third time. American Bridge advertised the research book by flying a plane over a rally Trump was holding in Detroit that was towing a banner reading “TrumpHatesWorkers.com,” the name of a site that redirects to the research book site. (Disclosure: The American Independent Foundation is a partner organization of American Bridge.)

Both the Biden campaign and Bridge focused on Trump’s record for workers as he claimed he was on the side of striking union auto workers in Michigan. Trump did not appear with union members, however, and instead visited a nonunion shop. Biden, meanwhile, became the first sitting president to join a picket line when he visited striking members of the United Auto Workers in Wayne County, Michigan.

As Democrats focus their attention on Trump, many Republicans who hoped to defeat him in the primary are now resigned to the fact that Trump’s nomination appears inevitable.

Even without appearing on either of the two GOP primary debate stages, and despite facing 91 federal charges ranging from violating the Espionage Act to conspiring to defraud the United States, Trump maintains an overwhelming lead in polls. He currently leads the field with 54.8% nationally, according to the FiveThirtyEight average. The next closest opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is far behind with just 13.5%.

“The only thing happening in the debates is the slow realization from the donor/thought leader class that they should have backed Haley instead of DeSantis as the plausible Trump alternative,” Sarah Longwell, an anti-Trump Republican political strategist, told the Wall Street Journal. “But it’s too late for that and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.”

Mike Madrid, an anti-Trump GOP consultant, told the Journal that the debate was like a “children’s table” at a party.

“If you add all the average polling of all the candidates on the stage, Trump would still be beating them all together by 20 points,” Madrid said. “There’s no race here.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.