Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump condemned “an unholy alliance” aimed at denying him another term in the White House. In Mr. Trump’s telling, Never Trumpers and the billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, through his group Americans for Prosperity, are conspiring with “globalists” and “communists” to encourage independents to support Ms. Haley in the GOP’s primary.
These dueling narratives depict the choice Republicans are facing. Ms. Haley talks about the real world and countering the United States’ adversaries. Mr. Trump looks inward, consumed by grievances and promising retribution against his domestic critics.
It is possible that this contrast could persuade New Hampshire’s sometimes unpredictable voters to give Ms. Haley a win on Tuesday, keeping alive her effort to pull the party away from its ruinous allegiance to Mr. Trump. Such an outcome would be a welcome surprise.
Yet elected Republicans are betting on the favorite, as party officials consolidate around the former president. Many Republicans, albeit not in public, rationalize their capitulation: Mr. Trump is only joking when he talks about revenge; he’s too old or too lazy to be as dangerous as he promises; he only wants to be a dictator on his first day, and, besides, their base wants a strongman. They argue that the economy was doing well under Mr. Trump until covid-19 hit; that he nominated the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade; that Congress and the courts will constrain him; and that he will give up power peacefully in January 2029 because he’ll be ineligible to run for another term.
Republican officials endorsing Mr. Trump — and New Hampshire primary voters casting ballots — should be honest with themselves. Mr. Trump is the same person who brought shame upon the country at Helsinki, when he refused to condemn Russia for interfering in the 2016 election; after Charlottesville, when he said “there were very fine people on both sides” of violent clashes around a racist march; and on Jan. 6, 2021, when he encouraged the Capitol invaders in his quest to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The revelations about the pressure he placed on swing-state public officials to defy the will of the voters suggest he is willing to manipulate and erode the institutions of democracy and, after his 2020 attempt, might have more success the next time he tries.
Reporting from Mr. Trump’s first term suggests that many of his worst ideas were stopped by staffers who simply ignored his commands. During a second term, he likely would not surround himself with reasonable or serious people, as Trump flunkies prepare lists of extremists with whom to fill the government. His allies are formulating plans to deconstruct the federal government, weaponize the Justice Department, roll back environmental protections, nullify global alliances and more. Mr. Trump could well be more dangerous now than he was in 2016 and 2020, in part because he and his people have had time to plan and avoid what they consider the mistakes of his first term — such as picking attorneys general who Mr. Trump felt were inadequately loyal to him.
Mr. Trump has been referring to Ms. Haley by her first name, Nimarata, and suggesting that, as the daughter of immigrants, she might be ineligible to serve as president, even though she was born in the United States. It’s a reprise of the birtherism he peddled against Barack Obama. Endorsing Mr. Trump, however reluctantly, is signing up for more of the same of this kind of racism.
Ms. Haley has belatedly criticized Mr. Trump in recent days for cozying up to dictators, from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to China’s Xi Jinping to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. A second Trump term would make the United States decidedly less safe, as he degraded alliances with America’s friends and played into the hands of the country’s adversaries.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) won the New Hampshire primary in 2008 despite advocating the unpopular, but correct, position of pouring more troops into Iraq to defeat the insurgency. The state has a proud tradition of rejecting extremism. Reasonable Republicans and independents there have a chance to reject Mr. Trump and what he represents. They don’t need to join an unholy alliance.
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