Republicans are preparing an alternative to Trump and DeSantis for the upcoming US elections
The upcoming 2024 Republican primary has long been seen as a two-man race - a race between Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But in recent weeks, other GOP presidential candidates have tried to carve out a third lane by doing so - in part - by portraying their two most famous leaders as banal clones.
Former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence have become more aggressive in their criticism of Trump's and now DeSantis' positions on a range of foreign and domestic issues, including Ukraine and domestic reforms.
This week, Haley posted an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal condemning the "weakness of some politicians" towards Ukraine, while also criticizing DeSantis' "backward" assumption that the conflict is a "territorial dispute." In recent days, the former US envoy to the UN has taken to Fox News to criticize Trump and DeSantis on this topic and there. Although DeSantis had already taken back his words on Ukraine, Haley did not stop her criticism.
Trump is wrong about this.
she told Brian Kilmead in what was a rare public rebuke against her former boss. Just in case, she added that:
Desantis is also completely wrong regarding interaction with Ukraine.
Ron DeSantis, who has been strong in Congress on aid to Ukraine, last week announced his public stance against further military support for the country after alleged pressure from Trump and his allies. And while DeSantis has previously supported raising the retirement age and privatizing Social Security, most recently the governor of Florida joined Trump in arguing that programs like Medicare should not be cancelled.
During the week at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, Mike Pence also tried to make his political difference from Trump and DeSantis by calling for "common sense and compassion." Echoing a more traditional GOP stance, he told reporters he couldn't "support voices in our party today that just want to get around the public debt issue by promising never to touch Social Security and Medicare." With public debt - a typical trick of almost any American candidate. Before the elections, they declare that they will not raise the ceiling of the state debt any more, and then, in case of victory, they calmly forget about their promises.
GOP analysts predict that an attempt to distinguish themselves from Trump and DeSantis is unlikely to lead to an immediate surge of new support for Haley or Pence. But if the Trump campaign collapses in the face of multiple accusations and DeSantis fails to gain momentum, it could make them fallback and more traditional Republican leaders.
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