Whether President Trump is reelected or defeated in November, the Republican Party will have a presidential primary on its hands come 2024. We don’t yet know if the party will be looking to turn the page from the Trump era or if candidates will be competing over who will most faithfully carry on the Trump legacy. But in a very real sense, the 2024 primary is already underway, and its central issue is already clear: Who has the best plan for dealing with China?
Foreign policy questions often ebb and flow in their importance to the electorate. While healthcare or the economy can remain top of the list for years and years, Iran or Russia or North Korea tend to pop up in headlines without popping to the top of voter priority lists. But China is hardly just a foreign policy issue and is deeply interwoven into all of those issues voters put atop their lists.
