OPINION:
As always, Donald Trump is a Party of One.
His entire term as president was polluted by the fevers of delusional Democrats spinning fantastical lies about him, disloyal Republicans too spineless to defend him and a hopelessly dishonest media — not to mention an insurrectionist federal bureaucracy hellbent on overturning the 2016 election.
It’s a fair point Mr. Trump makes when he says he should not have to endure the indignity of a Republican primary debate since he remains the quasi-incumbent leader of the Republican Party. President Biden ordered that Democratic primary debates be scrapped. Why not Mr. Trump?
The problem with Mr. Trump’s suggestion about killing GOP debates is that — unlike Mr. Biden — Mr. Trump is masterful in debates. Generally speaking, debates are Mr. Trump’s most powerful weapon. And he is at his absolute best when he defines himself and his agenda by shredding other, weaker Republicans.
Who wouldn’t want to take the stage to match wits with the likes of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley? The only political spine she has ever displayed is when she was taking orders from Mr. Trump after he sent her to be his ambassador to the United Nations. Otherwise, Mrs. Haley’s biggest knockouts have come in the ring with former CNN prime-time star Don Lemon, who according to Mr. Trump is “the dumbest man on television.”
She has also scored some points against the ladies of “The View.” But then again, compared with the ladies of “The View,” Mr. Lemon is a nuclear astro-microbiologist.
In politics, Mrs. Haley is the Queen of Meaningless Gestures.
After an evil wack-nut murdered nine Americans in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, then-Gov. Haley’s big solution was to help politicize the murders by removing a historical display a hundred miles away at the state Capitol — because it contained a Confederate flag.
Most recently, Mrs. Haley has sided with Disney in its fight against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. She offered that the company uproot its entire operation and move it to her state.
Not only is it stupid politics to side against Mr. DeSantis in his effort to get creepy sex training out of kindergarten, but the notion of moving Space Mountain 400 miles to South Carolina is even dumber and more useless than her stunt involving the deaths of nine churchgoers in 2015.
Then there is Gov. DeSantis, who I hope will one day be president. He is a thoughtful, strategic and calculating winner. Other than Mr. Trump himself, Mr. DeSantis is the most effective enactor of the Trump agenda.
But it remains to be seen how effective Mr. DeSantis will be on a stage beside Mr. Trump. Mr. DeSantis is not exactly a larger-than-life figure the way Mr. Trump is. You may think that is a silly way to measure who should be the next leader of the free world, but it is how politics works in a free country.
Size matters. Throughout history, taller men have always enjoyed the political advantage. Mr. Trump towers over Mr. DeSantis.
Take Mr. DeSantis’ choice of footwear. When ranchers wear them, they are called “cowboy boots.” When Mr. DeSantis wears them, they are called “lifts.”
Even walking stiffly in cowboy boots, however, Mr. DeSantis is barely taller than Mickey Mouse.
He just embarked on a tour around the world — allegedly to drum up business for the state of Florida, but more obviously to burnish his record on the world stage in preparation to run for president. Barack Obama took the same tour back in 2008.
In Mr. DeSantis’ case, you could also call it the “I’m Not the Shortest Person in the World” tour.
In South Korea, Japan and Israel, Mr. DeSantis found world leaders shorter than himself and took all kinds of pictures with them to send back home to make himself look taller. Unfortunately for Mr. DeSantis, the foreign minister of Japan will not be joining him on the debate stage against Mr. Trump.
The person likely to give Mr. Trump the most trouble in a GOP debate is businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
Other than Mr. Trump himself — who has always been Daniel in the lion’s den of Washington — Mr. Ramaswamy is the most clear-eyed, effective defender of the New Republican Party as redefined by Mr. Trump.
Mr. Ramaswamy makes mincemeat out of blithering idiots in the media like “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd, who honestly tried making a scientific, biological argument that there is a whole broad “spectrum” of genders.
“If you have XX chromosomes, you’re a woman. If you have XY chromosomes, you’re a man,” Mr. Ramaswamy explained to Mr. Todd as patiently as a parent explains why we don’t snort applesauce up our nose.
“That’s the scientific truth.”
Regardless of how Mr. DeSantis or Mr. Ramaswamy might do against Mr. Trump in a primary debate, both men stand as monuments to how far Mr. Trump has transformed politics in America — for the better.
• Charles Hurt is opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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