Nikki Haley is the Non-Trump Candidate, not that it does her much good

Since Donald Trump dropped the pretense that he might not seek the 2024 Republican nomination more than a year ago, there was a broad assumption about how the primary might subsequently unfold.

There would be Trump, the prohibitive pseudo-incumbent with a huge base. Then there would need to be a Non-Trump Candidate, someone who could coalesce the Trump-fatigued part of the Republican voting base. This was the only way that Trump could lose, the thinking went, by having only one alternative that would prevent his gobbling up delegates with only 35 percent of the vote.