GOP candidates chasing Trump are eating their own: report

As Donald Trump continues to hold a substantial lead in the polls to be the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nominee, the candidates wallowing lower in the polls with only single-digit support are going after each other instead of taking shots at the former president.

According to a report from the Daily Beast, with the exception of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), the majority of prospective GOP candidates who have announced or are expected to announce are seeing no traction in the polls and seem to be looking to take out their rivals to increase their own standing.

As the report notes, the DeSantis team is taking aim at former U.N. Secretary Nikki Haley who is, in turn, aiming her barbs at Sen. Tim Scott (R) in their home state of South Carolina.

According to one GOP operative, sniping in the lower ranks is a much safer route than taking on the former president head-on.

"Everybody wants to pile onto the weakest link,” the longtime GOP strategist explained. “So I think what these other candidates need to do is obviously not go after Trump directly and piss off the MAGA base, but going after kneecaps for the weakest links in the field.”

As the Daily Beast's Jake Lahut reported, "... going after Republicans not named Trump is also reflective of the electorate. GOP voters still overwhelmingly support Trump, and turning off his voters by relentlessly jousting with the former president could be a recipe for turning off the very voters you’ll eventually need."

Another GOP strategist claimed the candidates learned the lesson of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) who, in 2016, thought he could take out Trump by attacking him -- only to have it blow up in his face.

“When he went after Trump in 2016 talking about his hands, people were like, ‘Eh, we don’t like that.’” they explained. “So when you try and get in the gutter with Trump, people don’t like it. But when Trump does it, people like it, because when he does it, it looks natural. He’s just the bully, right?”

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According to the report, at this stage of the game, all the also-rans can hope for is moving up to number two in the polls as DeSantis continues to falter.

“You saw this in 2016, and now 2024 where people took aim at the guy who was in second or third,” a GOP insider suggested “So I think if you’re Haley, you’re trying to get yourself in a position where you’re competitive for that No. 2 spot going into the debates and, long term, heading into Iowa and New Hampshire before a boost in South Carolina.”

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