The Trump influencers are out trying to convince Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley to drop out. They are in the mood for a Roman Triumph, and why not? Although the turnout was very low, the result in Iowa was resounding.

Although it’s not to my political preferences, I think Trump’s general-election prospects are improved if Nikki Haley stays in and fights for as long as she can, before dropping out and endorsing Trump and becoming his vice-presidential nominee. She fits the veep spot in a number of ways: She has a different geographical base; she has campaigned from all the anti-Trump wings of the party simultaneously, anti-populist, libertarian, and neoconservative; and she is liked by voting groups that don’t particularly like or trust Donald Trump.

The longer she stays in the race, and the more graciously both decide to end it, the more likely her people feel that they at least have a place in the Republican coalition, and a potential shot at the presidency as soon as 2028, unless health issues or other fates give them the White House earlier. There are certainly going to be suburban women voters who voted for Trump in 2016, then for Biden in 2020, and could be convinced to come back from Trump in 2024 by Haley’s presence rather than Mike Pence’s.