The barons of the Republican Party unite ranks against an accused Donald Trump in the primaries for the White House

DeSantis and Pence, emblems of the party, stand out among a dozen homogeneous candidates in the radicalization of their political programs

MADRID, 10 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former president of the United States Donald Trump already knows his most prominent rivals for the Republican Party primaries for the White House that will take place from February of next year; a group of candidates relatively distanced from the figure of the tycoon but who have ended up assuming the ultranationalist principles of his former Presidency, without the edges of his personality.

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, and the former vice president of Trump, Mike Pence, his main opponents in the primaries, exemplify the strategy to be followed by the hard core of the party, the construction of a softened and unblemished version of Trump, over The one that already weighs two accusations, the last one this past Friday for withholding information, concealment of documents, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements, which have made little or no dent among his supporters. Trump remains the undisputed favorite to win the nomination.

This circumstance puts the Republican Party in a difficult position, which has defended its former standard-bearer against these accusations, but all the candidates know that in one way or another they are going to have to declare their opposition to Trump, either during the campaign or in the debates of the next year to turn around the current polls that give the former president an overwhelming difference in voting intentions over all his rivals.

To be specified, the collection of polls updated to this past Friday by the FiveThirtyEight website gives Trump 53.8 percent of the support of the Republican electorate, more than thirty percentage points above DeSantis (21.3 percent). Pence, who announced his candidacy on Wednesday, does not even reach double digits (5.4 percent), nor does it reach the former US ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump Presidency, Nikki Haley (4.5 percent). ), nor investor Vivek Ramaswamy (3.5 percent), nor South Carolina Senator Tim Scott (2.2 percent). Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson falls short of 1 percent.

The former governor of Maryland and prominent Republican figure Larry Hogan warned last weekend in an editorial for the 'New York Times' of the double danger that betting on Trump again represents for the party and the absence of an explicit condemnation of his person. "A cult of personality can't replace a principled party. As long as our people are still afraid to speak out what they think (of Trump) behind closed doors, we're never going to win. Republican voters have gone too long without seeing a debate about our party's values ​​beyond loyalty to Trump," he wrote.

"Principles" was a word constantly repeated by DeSantis in an interview with radio host Matt Murphy at the end of May collected by USA Today, in which he presented himself as an even more extreme version of Trump, whom he came to accuse of being " moving to the left." "For my part," DeSantis said, "I have always been a person rooted in conservative principles and here you win by advocating bold policies, as I have demonstrated in Florida, where I have never minced words."

DeSantis has yet to make a direct attack on Trump. At the most, he has criticized some of his decisions during his tenure, such as his response to the pandemic, and has preferred to present himself to the electorate as a figure of the future, ignoring the numerous personal attacks that the magnate has dedicated to him on his Truth Social network. . As could be heard in the interview with Murphy, the governor is instead betting on displaying his credentials mainly at the head of the state, where he has approved the ban on abortion after six weeks (in dispute before the state Supreme Court), the suspension of education on sexual orientation and gender identity policies in schools or the free concealed carrying of weapons.

Pence's rivalry is much more personal and, at the same time, more essential: beyond the values ​​of the Republican party, next year's primaries will be a fight for the spirit of the US Constitution that Trump trampled on by encouraging his supporters to storm the Capitol in January 2021 and then target Pence and his family for the wrath of his supporters after accusing him of not contesting the mogul's defeat in the November 2020 election. "Anyone who is believed to be above the Constitution," Pence said during the presentation of his candidacy, "he should never be president of the United States.

Beyond Pence and DeSantis, the rest of the candidates do not have really distinctive aspects. Haley, in the absence of really specifying her positions, could appeal to the voters as the only woman in the race, while black candidates like Scott or the radio presenter Larry Elder have little impact in the polls although experts from the Politico website point out that they could register some rise in the weeks leading up to the primaries before deflating.

It remains to be seen what future awaits another of the latest candidates to announce himself for the race, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the only one of Trump's rivals capable of dealing blow for blow with the tycoon's invective and who could act as a a kind of "picador" during the debates, according to the member of the editorial board of the 'New York Times' during the confrontations, Michelle Cottle.

"A lover of the mirror," Christie called Trump during the announcement of his candidacy. And yet, he is one of the candidates with the most defined attitude towards the former president: finish him at all costs, no matter how revengeful it may seem, aware of the enormous influence that the former president still enjoys. "I am going to be very clear: I am here to finish off Donald Trump. Because I want to win and I want him not to win. He is leading the race for the Republican nomination. And to win you have to go over him, because I have known him for more than 20 years and I can guarantee that he will do exactly the same with us," he declared.