Kick Donald Trump's surrogates out of Milwaukee's debate arena

If Donald Trump wants to have surrogates in the Spin Room after Wednesday night's debate, there's only 1 way that should be allowed. If Trump wants his surrogates to have access, then Trump has to debate the other candidates and he has to sign the pledge to support the eventual nominee. If that isn't acceptable to his highness, then he can take a hike.

What can these surrogates add to the Spin Room? Can they talk about how their candidate (Trump) laid out his vision for the next 4 years? They can't say that their candidate had the best moment of the night. In other words, Trump's surrogates wouldn't add a thing to the post-debate event.

Let's look at this through a realistic prism. Andy McCarthy posted his opinion on Trump's chances of winning re-election when he said "Very simple: Trump can’t win. 65% already against him. That’s before Dems launch barrage after getting him nominated. If we finally grasp that, his support will collapse. If not, we lose everything, and Dems use majorities to remake Supreme Court. Nominate him if you want, but that’s reality."

First, I can't see Trump's support collapsing. His supporters are more loyal than that. That being said, isn't it obvious that he hasn't grown his base? Next, let's consider something that nobody's talked about. Think about the barrage of negative ads run against Gov. DeSantis. He's had more negative ads run against him than have been run against Joe Biden and Donald Trump combined.

Despite that, Gov. DeSantis' approval rating is the highest of any GOP presidential candidate at 66%, with 29% disapproval. Trump, who hasn't gotten touched yet, has an approval rating of 65%, with 33% disapproving. That tells me that Gov. DeSantis's base is pretty steadfast. Further, it tells me that Trump's troops aren't as steadfast as they used to be.

Further, Trump's approval isn't that great despite not getting hit by his opponents. Here's what Kyle Peterson reports in the WSJ:

To quote an ad from AFP Action, an associated super PAC: "If we nominate Trump, Republicans lose." Canvassers are knocking on the doors of "soft" Trump voters, and according to a polling memo posted by AFP, "41% of Trump supporters say they are open to supporting an alternative."

That's a ton of soft Trump voters that can be flipped.

That makes me question all the polls sent out by the Trump campaign that Trump is leading by 35-50 points. How can Trump have a 65% approval and get 50+ of the vote of GOP caucus-goers and primary voters but Gov. DeSantis get 15-20% of the vote while maintaining a 66% approval rating? With this many soft Trump voters and with Gov. DeSantis still maintaining a high approval rating, I question whether Trump's lead is as insurmountable as he proclaims it to be. This DMR Poll is interesting:

In years past, pollsters talked about "quiet Trump voters", people who didn't tell pollsters they support Trump. How many likely Iowa caucus-goers fit into that category? Can the AFP door-knockers change those caucus-goers into DeSantis supporters? Let's see.

I question Gerard Baker's WSJ article. Here's his thinking:

When you have a 40-point lead in the opinion polls and 100% name recognition, why would you risk taking to a stage to exchange unpleasantries with people most viewers wouldn’t recognize if they lived in their basement, and who, if you add together their numbers in the latest Fox News poll, would still trail Mr. Trump by double digits?

First, this debate, like all other debates, is a job interview with the American people. By not showing up, Trump is essentially telling voters that the interview isn't that important, though it's important enough to want his surrogates to be there to second-guess the candidates' replies on stage. If you want to dominate the Spin Room, you first have to appear on the debate stage. That is, unless Ronna McDaniel caves and invites you into the Spin Room. That is, unless Fox, who is hosting the event, tells the RNC that Trump surrogates aren't welcome unless Trump is on-stage.