Trump is 'out of political shape' and running scared: columnist

In her column for the Wall Street Journal, longtime political observer and Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan suggested Donald Trump not only has scant reason to make an appearance at the Republican Party 2024 presidential debates, but that it is in his best interest to stay away.

With Trump making rumblings about a boycott because he doesn't feel the RNC is listening to him, the columnist claimed his underlying reason could be tied to a fear that his rivals will turn him into a human punching bag.

As Noonan noted, Trump is older and not the counter-puncher he once was and, after years of limiting his appearances to controlled environments, he is "out of political shape."

Foremost, she pointed out, Trump doesn't need the debates -- they need him.

"He’s leading, his competitors are trailing; they need it, he doesn’t; he’s famous, they aren’t. One of them could land a shot and ding his mystique. Why expose himself?" she wrote. "The audience grows if he shows, shrinks if he doesn’t; his absence hurts his rivals. And he can always counterprogram, going live on another network while the debate is on."

Having explained that, she suggested the the former president is wary of being embarrassed.

"I think the real reason he might skip the debates is that he’s scared of being up there on stage for two hours in an uncontrolled environment with a group of people who are gunning for him. He hasn’t had to do that since 2016," she noted. "The last time he did, he had nothing to lose. His competitors flailed—he was an unknown quantity; they didn’t know what they were up against. He’s older now, 77 in June. He’s out of political shape. He’s throwing reporters’ phones. He mostly does venues he can control—rallies."

She also pointed out that the former president could fear a botched appearance could end his political career.

"There’s an old boxing saying attributed (with varying language) to Joe Louis and Mike Tyson: Everyone has a plan until he gets punched in the face. Donald Trump has never had to rethink his plan because he never took it full in the face. He doesn’t have to take what he dishes out. He’s never been the focus, onstage, of a serious, capable, sustained assault on policy or comportment. No one on his side has ever challenged him to his face on how and why he failed as president," she wrote before pointing out, "No one knows if he could take it. He doesn’t know."

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