Everyone understands that the Democrats and their allies in corporate media desperately want former President Donald Trump to be the GOP’s nominee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, next summer. Their chief motivation is painfully obvious: Nearly every swing state poll has the 45th president losing significantly to President Joe Biden, despite the president’s abysmal approval rating and obviously declining health.

Democrats are confident, borderline cocky, imagining the prospects of facing off against a deeply unpopular candidate who has already lost to Biden once under much more favorable circumstances .

The Left will, without a doubt, try to capitalize on Trump’s campaign in other ways as well. Trump has attacked his main primary challenger, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), relentlessly in recent months, often smearing the hard-line conservative from the Left.

Trump slammed DeSantis for his position on reforming entitlements. He attacked the governor’s COVID-19 response while praising his own policies that gave us lockdowns, mandates, and passports. The Trump campaign routinely mocks DeSantis over his feud with Disney over the corporation’s overt attempts to indoctrinate children. Instead of championing the pro-life cause, as he did as president, Trump again criticized DeSantis as “ too harsh ” on abortion after the governor signed Florida’s six-week abortion ban into law.

The DeSantis campaign rolled out its plan to address illegal immigration at a campaign stop in Eagle Pass, Texas, this week, taking a hawkish stance in an attempt to outflank Trump on the issue. It certainly is not out of the question that the former president will choose to attack his primary opponent from the left on the very issue that won him the 2016 election.

On guns, Trump’s history is shaky, at best. As president, he violated his oath of office by unilaterally banning bump stocks, and we remember his infamous “ take the guns first, go through due process second .” It would be easy to attack DeSantis from the left on gun rights, considering the governor recently signed constitutional carry into law.

Perhaps Donald Trump will remember the promises he made to the voters who elected him president and abandon his recent leftward trajectory, but the man is a reactionary. I expect this trend to continue, to the benefit of the Democrats and their corporate media allies.

There is a reason why Trump-hating journalists have chosen to adopt Trump campaign talking points when attacking “ worse than Trump ” Ron DeSantis. Liberals would love nothing more than to watch the Republican front-runner drag the party to the left.

Brady Leonard ( @bradyleonard ) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast .