This Wednesday, Sept. 27, hopeful Republican challengers will take the stage at the Reagan Presidential Library in California for their second presidential primary debate. From Chris Christie’s fruitless criticisms of Trump to Desantis’ apparent struggle to generate human emotions, the debate will certainly generate enough content for at least another week of political punditry by CNN and MSNBC analysts.

But while the six candidates, all of whom are currently polling below 10% with Republican primary voters, stand on the stage and debate nonsensical plans for the abolishment of several federal agencies (entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy) or the importance of “eliminating gender ideology” from schools (Florida Governor Ron Desantis), former president Donald Trump will be meeting with union workers in Detroit, Michigan, a city in a crucial battleground state that he lost narrowly to President Joe Biden in 2020.

I don’t feel the need to devote an article to an analysis of each candidates’ wildly contradictory platforms, but it’s worth taking a moment to summarize. With the exception of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who is polling at a dismal two percent with GOP primary voters, every other candidate who will take the stage on Wednesday has so far refused to explicitly denounce Trump’s criminal actions. (Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s qualification status is unclear at the time of publication.) Instead, they have chosen to partake in an impossible balancing act: making the case for why they deserve the nomination over Trump while avoiding any policy differences that would turn off the voters that they so desperately need to win over.

At the first primary debate in August, this political contortionism led to a bizarre show. It seemed as if Mr. Ramaswamy and Senator Tim Scott were locked in a battle to win Trump’s vice-presidential nomination as their ill-defined policies merely echoed the former president’s campaign website. Mr. Desantis and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley presented themselves as reasonable alternatives to Mr. Trump’s rhetoric, but lacked the energy (and polling numbers) to convince anyone of their viability. Mr. Christie and Mr. Hutchinson were the only staunch critics of Mr. Trump on the stage, but sadly, at this point in the campaign, their low single-digit polling won’t cut it. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum was only on stage because he literally gave out gift cards in order to meet the debate’s donation requirement. Lastly, in the case of former vice president Mike Pence, it’s clear at this point that he must enjoy the near-daily denigration that he faces from Mr. Trump given that he still decided to show up. 

All of this noise distracts from an insurmountable obstacle for the Republican challengers: Donald Trump’s polling numbers. A recent HarrisX/Harris poll found that the former president continues to enjoy just under 60% of GOP support; the second place candidate, Mr. Desantis, sits at an abysmal and steadily declining 10%. And according to 538’s polling average, Trump’s support among GOP voters actually increased by five points between August’s debate (which he similarly abstained from) and now. 

This is a candidate who faces a staggering 91 charges, including but not limited to conspiracy to defraud the United States and willful retention of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act. I might note here that there is no law prohibiting a presidential candidate from running from behind bars; in fact, there is even historical precedent.

Up to this point, the national media has portrayed this as a normal presidential election cycle. According to them, a variety of GOP candidates are jostling for their party’s nomination in order to challenge the incumbent Democrat. This approach is not only inaccurate, but could prove to be ruinous in the coming months. Donald Trump is not a normal candidate. He attempted to illegitimately overturn the 2020 election, directing his supporters to commit violent acts to keep him in office. Time and time again, he has shown blatant disregard for the due process of law, publicly disparaging judges, juries, and anyone who dared challenge him. As president, he promised to completely restructure the federal government in a plan that a New York University law professor described as making the presidency more “like being the monarchical ruler of a kingdom.” Further, if elected and convicted of any federal crimes, he has said he would have the right, as president, to pardon himself. To reiterate, Donald Trump is not a normal candidate.

Most mainstream media outlets understand this abnormality and regularly publish articles that analyze the constitutionality of Trump’s goals. They’re eager to report on any new developments in his criminal cases. Yet they also continue to devote thousands of words and hours of TV time to increasingly futile GOP challengers. 

If media outlets believe in the preservation of America’s sacred democratic institutions, they must alter their coverage of the 2024 election. They should treat President Trump as the inevitable GOP nominee, and forcefully reject his unconstitutional policy propositions. Every minute that is spent covering an embarrassing moment at a Desantis campaign event or an outrageous statement by Tim Scott is a minute that could be spent covering Donald Trump, our former and potential autocrat-in-chief. 

Similarly, it’s no secret that Donald Trump’s base is not a normal political coalition. Each indictment seems to strengthen his popularity with his core supporters as the belief that the efforts to criminally prosecute him are politically motivated becomes more and more entrenched. When presented with an array of candidates ranging from loony newcomers (Ramaswamy) to (relatively) principled conservatives boasting extensive resumes (Haley and Hutchinson), they continuously choose the 77-year-old facing 91 criminal charges in four different states. Trump’s base is not a group of rational voters that can be persuaded; it is a cult of personality that refuses to consider any alternative. 

With President Biden’s approval ratings murky at best, and a combination of his son’s recent indictment and his own old age bringing a near-daily media storm, Donald Trump’s road to the White House feels increasingly more feasible. Every day that we continue to treat his GOP challengers as viable candidates, we take the national spotlight off the egregious prospect of a second Trump administration. National media outlets should decrease their focus on this week’s debate and instead exhaustively cover Trump on the campaign trail, analyzing his policy proposals and gaffes with the same microscope that is applied to Biden on a daily basis. They should bring Trump’s age into the conversation with the same gusto that they do Biden’s; after all, Trump is just three years younger than Biden and in arguably worse physical shape.

Finally, Trump critics like Christie and Hutchinson should drop out and throw their weight behind Biden’s re-election efforts. They both understand the devastating consequences of a Trump win and haven’t been afraid to say it so far. But the real test comes now; will they continue to fruitlessly fight for the GOP nomination, or bite the bullet and put their support behind the man that they are far more closely ideologically aligned with?

This is a truly unique presidential campaign, and it should be treated as such. Enough with the primary politics. Anyone who has said they are diametrically opposed to another Trump presidency should step up and acknowledge the elephant in the Reagan Presidential Library: Donald Trump will be the Republican Party’s presidential nominee.
Miles Pinsof-Berlowitz is a member of the class of 2027 and can be reached at mpinsofberlo@wesleyan.edu.