President Biden left a terrific open goal this week. While he made his visit to Ukraine, former President Trump showed up in East Palestine, Ohio. Mocking Biden, Trump made political capital from the fact that no senior administration figure had yet visited the site of the toxic rail disaster. Within hours the Biden administration sent Pete Buttigieg. Which will doubtless help enormously.

But there was something striking about the Trump visit. Not just the usual self-promotion, talk of “Trump Water” and much more. Rather it was the fact that by turning up in Ohio, Trump looked like the President’s main rival. And at this stage it is just crazy that this should be the case.

We are only 20 months away from the next Presidential election, and at this stage, the Republican party should be starting to whittle down its field of contenders. Yet here we are with most of the people expected to run still sitting it out, silent.

It’s true that Nikki Haley has started her campaign, as have a few outriders like Vivek Ramaswamy, to whom I wish much luck. But the serving or former officials who should have started their campaigns by now are still sitting it out. Leaving the ground open for Trump to do stunts like his Ohio trip this week.

We all know why they are still holding back. They fear the battering they will get from Trump when they step into the ring. And they hope that if Trump can concentrate his energies on savaging one of their rivals the former president may have run out of steam by the time he turns on them. There are lots of personal tactical reasons why someone might hold this position. But for the sake of the GOP and the country as a whole the Republican contenders have to break their silence. They have to stop the omerta. It is time to come out, guys.

Ron DeSantis is the most obvious contender who still inexplicably keeping quiet. You can see why. Trump is increasingly goading the Florida governor, using his Truth Social platform this week to refer again to “Ron DeSanctimonious” and test-running a new nickname “Meatball Ron.” Love him or hate you, you have to admit that when Trump ran in 2016 he had a knack of attaching deadly names to his opponents. But that talent has deserted him. Trump’s attacks on DeSantis are heavy-handed, leaden and way-past unamusing.

So what more are DeSantis and others worried about? Trump is already sniping at anyone he sees as being a rival. All the polls show that DeSantis is the only figure in the polls at the moment who could beat Trump to the Republican nomination. Perhaps Trump does have some more blunt and unamusing nicknames up his sleeve. Perhaps he will keep claiming that DeSantis only became Governor of Florida because of him. Perhaps he even has some dirt on his rival which — as he has hinted — he will try at some point to release.

Well so what? This country is facing huge challenges at home and abroad. We have sky-high inflation, dangerously crumbling infrastructure and out-of-control spending. On top of that — and partly because of it — the country´s ability to remain the foremost military and economic power in the world in this century is under serious contest from China.

Anyone who makes it all the way to the White House is going to face a lot meaner and nastier people than Trump out there. Trump is a schoolyard bully compared to the real-world bullies that any President has to face down on the international stage. So it remains inexplicable, to me at any rate, that the former President still has such a bully-hold on the Republican party. And the impact of this selfish strangle-hold is felt everywhere.

It’s not just the lack of Presidential candidates. Where is the positive case being made for conservatism in the Senate or in Congress? Most Republican representatives behave as though they are stuck in an ideological holding-pattern. They keep circling and circling because nobody is giving them permission to land or telling them where to go.

But such leadership is going to have to start at some point. And anyone who wishes to lead the free world is going to have to lead in the party first. And securing that position will take time, for sure.

That is why the field cannot be left open for Donald Trump. It shouldn’t just be him out there making opportunities from Biden’s errors. There should be other candidates out there too. Perhaps they could also be highlighting what has been going on in Ohio and speak for the people of the state who seemed to have been overlooked by DC.

And these candidates could show that you can care about Ohio and Ukraine. Because an American President should care about both. For the USA, foreign and domestic policy should not be an “either / or” issue. Our enemies and competitors certainly don´t think it is.

There is plenty of talent on the Republican benches. It´s high time to release it.

The inventor of “The 1619 Project,” Nikole Hannah-Jones took some potshots at me on social media this week. America’s most successful fabulist criticized me over reports of a speech I gave this week at the University of Virginia. As usual Hannah-Jones didn’t do her homework, but she has accidentally answered a question I posed to the UVA students.

In generations past Americans debated ideas in the public square. “Public Intellectuals” like James Baldwin and William F. Buckley couldn’t just throw claims out there. They had to defend them. So, I asked students, how should we refer to the new type of Americans who throw out wild and inaccurate claims about this country and more, but resolutely refuse to debate their claims in public?

What do you call someone who won’t defend their own ideas and perhaps cannot defend their ideas because they know how weak their ideas must be? I now have an answer to my question. The opposite of a public intellectual? Nikole Hannah-Jones.