GOP official calls Democratic infighting a 'dream scenario' for Trump's campaign


Democratic presidential candidates are tearing each other apart, and President Trump's re-election team is loving it.
Billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer used Friday's debate to tear up former Vice President Joe Biden over a campaign attack. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) spent the debate criticizing former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's attempts to "buy [his] way into a nomination." And pretty much everyone was united in going after former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg for his lack of experience.
All of that, a GOP operative tells Politico, means the Trump campaign "doesn't have to do anything but step back and watch the Democrats demolish themselves." "If you had asked me at the beginning of all of this which Democrats would be the weakest to run against from the moderate and the progressive lanes," this operative said he'd have cited Buttigieg and Sanders. That's exactly who's leading the pack coming out of the Iowa caucuses, leading to a "dream scenario" for Trump, the operative added.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Meanwhile, Biden, a candidate Trump once feared enough to try and get damaging information about from Ukraine, isn't even getting mentioned in the Trump camp anymore, Politico reports. Biden's name "is now hardly mentioned in conversations with the president's aides ... unless they're mocking him," Politico writes. And after his dismal fourth-place Iowa finish, well, "it looks like he's competing against himself," a top Trump aide said.
Read more about how the Trump campaign is viewing the Democratic melee at Politico.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
June 29 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include the AI genie, Iran saving face, and bad language bombs
-
A tall ship adventure in the Mediterranean
The Week Recommends Sailing aboard this schooner and exploring Portugal, Spain and Monaco is a 'magical' experience
-
How drone warfare works
The Explainer From Ukraine to Iran, it has become clear that unmanned aircraft are rapidly revolutionising modern warfare
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from