Two Republicans Will Challenge Trump In The Primaries

 (The cartoon image above is by Lalo Alcaraz.)

Donald Trump will have two opponents in the primaries next year -- a moderate and a conservative. Former Massachusetts governor William Weld (a moderate) announced he is running for president on the Republican ticket. Joining him in the race against a Trump re-nomination is former Illinois representative Joe Walsh (a conservative).

Now it may sound strange that Trump has drawn opponents from both wings of the Republican Party, but it shouldn't. Trump is neither a moderate or a conservative. He's an opportunist with no real political views. Trump is only interested in what he perceives as being good for him -- whatever satisfies his narcissism, whatever benefits him monetarily, and whatever benefits him electorally.

If an issue doesn't benefit him personally, Trump has no interest in it. And if an issue could benefit him, he doesn't care when it rests on the political spectrum, he will support it. As a young man, Trump was a Democrat (except for his racial views). Now he is a Republican. Neither had anything to do with political issues, but were just what he thought would benefit him at the time.

One might point to Trump's only accomplishment (his tax cuts). Wasn't that a conservative issue? It used to be. The Republican Party has preached tax cuts (especially for the rich). But for Trump, it was just a way to put more dollars into his bank account. You can bet if those cuts didn't mostly benefit the corporations and the rich, he would not have supported them.

Neither Weld not Walsh has a snowball's chance in hell of being nominated. They are ghosts of the Republican past -- a past where the Republican Party actually had political views. That party is dead. The current Republican Party has become nothing more than a cult of personality. Political views are unimportant. The only important thing to Republicans today is whatever Donald Trump wants -- and whatever that is (wherever it falls on the political spectrum), they will find a way to justify it.

Trump will win the GOP nomination. There's no doubt of that, because the GOP is no longer a party of principles. I just found it interesting that he has drawn opponents from both sides of the political spectrum.