On Wednesday night, cable news broadcast a tale of two contests. On CNN, two Republicans spent the better part of two hours exchanging pejoratives, attacking each others’ motivations and political records, and accusing each other of being dishonest in general and fake conservatives in particular. On Fox News, the other Republican was uplifting, on message, and appealing to the center while defending the party platform.

Donald Trump debuted a throwback to the 2020 election, but not to his whiny, negative, and grievance-laden death march to Jan. 6. Rather, the former president pivoted to the general election by borrowing the 2020 blueprint of his successor. After months of effectively campaigning from the basement (in this case, the manor of Mar-A-Lago) and cordoning his most unhinged umbrages to the obscurity of Truth Social, Trump focused on the future and, not dishonestly, positioned his own candidacy as the return to normal from the extremism and chaos of the Biden presidency.