Donald Trump’s rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination hoped the debate stage in Miami would put them at the center of the political universe Wednesday night.
Instead, they found themselves in a familiar position: competing with the boisterous former president for the attention of GOP primary voters.
Never one to miss the chance to upstage his foes, Mr. Trump held a campaign rally miles away in Hialeah, taking the stage to raucous chants of “USA! USA!” roughly 90 minutes later than scheduled, and a half an hour into the televised Republican showdown.
“Our nation is in very serious trouble and it is time for the Republican establishment to stop wasting time and resources pushing weak and ineffective RINOs and never Trumpers that nobody wants and nobody is going to vote for,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump said he caught the beginning of the debate and found the other candidates to be “not watchable.” The debates, he said, have been flops.
“You have what, about seven or eight candidates left?” he said at another point. “I think they are at a debate tonight — nobody is talking about it.”
The split-screen was symbolic of the suffocating hold Mr. Trump has had on the Republican race.
Mr. Trump hung over the debate stage as moderators kicked things off by asking the other contenders to spell out to voters why they are a stronger candidate than Mr. Trump.
While his rivals fielded questions from moderators in the traditional debate format, Mr. Trump riled up and entertained a rowdy crowd that turned out for one of his signature rallies down the street.
He leads by wide margins in early state polls, despite a spate of legal challenges that threaten his real estate empire and could land him behind bars.
Indeed, Mr. Trump has turned the courtroom into the campaign trail, shifting the spotlight away from the rest of the field of contenders scrambling to convince voters in Iowa and New Hampshire to turn the page.
Recent polls also show Mr. Trump is running ahead of President Biden in a hypothetical match-up next year.
A New York Times/Siena College poll found registered voters in six key battleground states trusted Mr. Trump more than Mr. Biden on a number of issues, including the economy, immigration and national security.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders endorsed Mr. Trump and introduced him to the rally crowd as a “disrupter” who is the “complete and total opposite of Joe Biden.”
“Our country has never needed Donald more than we do right now,” said Mrs. Sanders, who served as Trump’s White House press secretary. “President Trump is not afraid to make waves and get the job done — even if it is politically incorrect.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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