Former President Donald Trump and his team have repeatedly insisted that the GOP presidential primary is over. And yet, as the actual primary contests creep closer, they sound increasingly more desperate to stop this primary that they insist isn’t a threat.

Trump’s campaign issued yet another statement on Monday calling for the GOP presidential debate in Miami, and all other debates, to be canceled and for the Republican National Committee to “refocus its manpower and money on preventing Democrats’ efforts to steal the 2024 election.” The campaign also said that anything less than canceling is “an admission to the grassroots that their concerns about voter integrity are not taken seriously.”

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This is an attempt at political coercion based more on the myth of Trump’s grip on the GOP electorate than on reality, given that 40%-50% of the “grassroots” now support candidates other than him. Even then, though, Trump holds a significant lead in primary polls nationally and in the early primary states. He and his team insist that the debates don’t matter and that the primary is over. So what exactly is he so worried about?

Is money the only concern? We know that Trump’s Save America PAC, which is supposed to be part of that operation to beat the Democrats in 2024, has been spending its money on Trump’s legal fees. Trump’s fundraising troubles are well documented, as the money going into his campaign from small-dollar donors ends up making its way to his lawyers instead of to normal campaign expenses.

Is Trump going to be unable to campaign, either due to the fact that his campaign is running on fumes financially or because he is in physical and mental decline as a 77-year-old man (the same age that President Joe Biden was during his 2020 basement campaign)? Is Trump worried that brief one-hour visits to Iowa few and far between will lead voters to sour on him as the primary comes closer and younger candidates, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), are able to visit and speak more frequently and more coherently than he is?

Speaking of DeSantis, if the Trump campaign is so unbothered by his candidacy, why have they been calling on him specifically to drop out for months? When has the first-place campaign calling on the closest challenger to drop out ever signified confidence that the challenger has already been defeated?

There are 3 1/2 months until the Iowa caucus. That is104 days that DeSantis and other candidates are going to spend campaigning, while Trump spends most of them bleeding money in legal fees and posting rants on social media. Trump is either desperate for money, worried that his polling lead is going to disintegrate once actual votes begin to be cast, or both. The primary is clearly not over because, if it were, Trump wouldn’t be calling on the RNC to cancel it.

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