The worst political attacks on Republicans who join the 2024 presidential field likely won’t come from Democrats, they’ll be lobbed by former President Donald Trump, whose command over much of the GOP base will make it difficult for his opponents to fire back without the risk of alienating MAGA Republicans.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a top Trump target, is leading the emerging field of 2024 Republicans with a strategy to deal with Mr. Trump: Ignore the former president’s attacks and avoid mentioning him by name.
Other Republicans are copying the DeSantis playbook, and GOP strategists say it’s a smart approach — at least for now.
“He [Mr. DeSantis] doesn’t want the direct engagements,” said former Rep. David Jolly, a Republican strategist based in Florida. “It doesn’t help him and he’s been able to get where he is today without it.”
Mr. DeSantis is by far the most popular Republican primary candidate outside of Mr. Trump in 2024 polls, and in a number of surveys, he is outperforming the former president in one-on-one matchups.
But Mr. DeSantis isn’t the only rising GOP star with 2024 potential who has been targeted by the former president.
Mr. Trump has taken swipes at other potential and declared rivals, including former Vice President Mike Pence, his former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley; his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo; and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Mrs. Haley, in her campaign kickoff Wednesday in Charleston, South Carolina, made an appeal to GOP voters who are “tired of losing.” It was seen as barb at Mr. Trump.
The former president’s spokesperson called Mrs. Haley “a career politician whose only fulfilled commitment is to herself.”
The Trump campaign also put out a statement about “the real Nikki Haley” that accused her of being an admirer of Hillary Clinton and of supporting cuts to entitlement programs.
Mr. Trump, on the defensive following the disappointing midterm election results, lashed out at Mr. Youngkin in November, proclaiming the popular governor who defied the odds with his 2021 victory “couldn’t have won” without his endorsement and suggesting his name “sounds Chinese.”
Like Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Youngkin did not punch back, but instead seemed to bob and weave around the former president, telling reporters in Richmond he had not seen Mr. Trump’s comments.
“You all know me, I do not call people names,” Mr. Youngkin said. “That’s not the way I roll and not the way I behave. This is a moment for us to come together as a nation.”
So far, neither Mr. Pompeo nor Mrs. Haley has hit back at Mr. Trump’s recent jabs. Mrs. Haley did call for cognitive tests for candidates over age 75: Mr. Trump is 76, and President Biden is 80.
Mr. Trump, appearing earlier this month on the Hugh Hewitt radio program, said Mr. Pompeo “took a little bit more credit than he should” while working in his administration. In the same interview, Mr. Trump called Mrs. Haley, who announced her presidential run on Wednesday, “a very ambitious person” who “just couldn’t stay in a seat.”
University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato told The Washington Times that Mr. Trump’s opponents are smart to refrain from engaging with him directly at this point.
The first GOP primary is nearly a year away, and only Mr. Trump and Mrs. Haley have officially declared their candidacies. In most polls, a third or more of GOP voters continue to support Mr. Trump as the Republican candidate for president in 2024.
“The smartest strategy right now is to minimize the conflict while briefly addressing whatever the substance of the attack is,” Mr. Sabato said. “It is still true, as the old saying goes, that an attack unanswered is an attack agreed to. But any Trump opponent at this early stage can answer mildly but dismissively.”
Mr. Trump so far has reserved his sharpest attacks for Mr. DeSantis, who is not only becoming a top choice among primary voters but is attracting some of the the wealthiest donors who want to move past Mr. Trump in 2024.
It’s made him a top target for Mr. Trump, who announced in November he is running for president a third time.
Even though Mr. DeSantis has not yet declared himself a 2024 candidate, he’s become the biggest political threat to the former president. Mr. Trump is seeking ways to dim his emerging star power.
Mr. Trump began testing the insulting nickname “Ron DeSanctimonious” at a campaign rally last fall and has lodged a series of attacks since Mr. DeSantis won re-election in November by an historic 20-point margin. Mr. Trump called him “disloyal” for weighing a presidential bid and claimed that Mr. DeSantis begged him, with tears in his eyes, for his endorsement in the 2018 Florida governor’s race.
As Mr. DeSantis’s influence on the party has expanded, Mr. Trump’s attacks have grown sharper.
A recent post by Mr. Trump on his Truth Social media site suggested Mr. DeSantis was “grooming high school girls with alcohol” when he was a teacher two decades ago at a boarding school in Georgia.
Mr. DeSantis stuck to the playbook and responded without acknowledging Mr. Trump.
“I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida, and fighting Joe Biden,” he told a crowd in Ocala last week. “I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.”
One Republican with ties to the DeSantis camp and who asked for anonymity said the governor will likely “stay above the fray initially, until he becomes a candidate, unless it’s something that he sees is going to be a major problem.”
Mr. Jolly said the tactic will work, but only for so long. For example, it will be hard for Mr. DeSantis to avoid Mr. Trump’s barbs during a live primary debate.
“Do they end up on a stage together, too soon for DeSantis’s fortunes, where it really gets ugly?” Mr. Jolly said. “Or, can he actually capture the momentum before he really has to have that direct engagement with Donald Trump?”
For all of the GOP primary candidates, Mr. Jolly said, the playbook for dealing with attacks from Mr. Trump must center on embracing Trumpism and the MAGA base, “and to recognize it only hurts them by taking on Trump, the person.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.