Donald Trump isn’t known as a great strategic thinker. But he sure has a major strategic choice to make right now, and it’s far from clear what the best play is.
Trump’s predicament stems from a whopping flip-flop by the Republican nominee for Senate from New Hampshire, Don Bolduc. Bolduc campaigned in the primary as a true conservative and Trump supporter, including fully endorsing Trump’s false claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election. But as soon as the primary was safely won, Bolduc declared that “the election was not stolen” and acknowledged that Joe Biden was the legitimate president.
This sets up quite a problem for Trump. While the former president’s grip on the Republican Party is partly based on how helpful he can be to candidates seeking nominations, the main reason Republicans fear him is the possibility that he could turn against them in November, either by asking voters to stay home or even suggesting they vote for GOP candidates’ Democratic or third-party rivals. Republicans worry that many voters would remain loyal to him.
