'No chance': Republican presidential campaigns called out for cash grabs and ego trips

Politico asked some Republican and former Republicans about the current primary field as Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) toys with whether to jump into the race or not. The ongoing consensus is that there's no shortage of ego in the GOP.

“Every single candidate other than Donald Trump on the Republican side has no chance of being president or getting the Republican nomination,” said former Michigan GOP chair Jeff Timmer, a senior adviser to the Lincoln Project.

"The motivations are bolstering their statures, satisfying their ego, pure delusion and fantasy," he continued.

The piece began talking about the last time anyone ever heard about Will Hurd, the "nobody" currently serving as the Mayor of Miami, and the Republican that was humiliated in the California recall election.

Still, they proclaim, they're in it to win it.

"Truth is, the shoot-for-the-moon-and-you’ll-land-among-the-stars strategy is all upside. And in the presidential attention-grabbing industrial complex, 2024 is looking like one for the record books," Politico assessed.

Indeed, if there's one thing that a presidential campaign does, it allows long-shot candidates to fundraise buckets of cash into Super PACs. It almost guarantees that any campaign can be lucrative, even if they're humiliated at the ballot box.

Politico cited Perry Johnson, a Michigan businessman selling $1 t-shirts, saying, "I stand with Tucker." Each time his single-digit poll numbers go up he excitedly promotes it. He's also running a campaign-themed reality TV show.

“To you,” he said, “this sounds ridiculous. I expect to win.”

Another businessman, Vivek Ramaswamy swears the perks are not why he's running. There are a “lot of ways to change this country, but [running is] a tremendous sacrifice."

The benefit to Donald Trump is that the non-Trump vote ends up being split into tiny fractions, making it impossible for him to lose.

“It’s a gigantic problem” for Mr. DeSantis, said Dave Carney, a veteran Republican strategist, when speaking to The New York Times at the end of May. "Whatever percentage they get makes it difficult for the second-place guy to win because there’s just not the available vote.”

"No more Republican candidates for President, please," former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) tweeted. "It's basically Trump/DeSantis, or Christie/Hutchinson. Those are the lanes." He described the former group as 'the MAGA/MAGA light' and the latter as 'truth-tellers.'"

"Everyone else will help Trump," Kinzinger warned.

Read the full report at Politico.