“... his achievements in the economy are great, but they are a very distant second place to his national defense achievements....”
Not to normal working folks sitting at the kitchen table, they aren’t.
People concerned about getting to work, paying the bills, keeping the lights on, and putting food on the table are more worried about THOSE immediate issues.
Goes back to Clinton and ol’ “It’s The Economy, Stupid” James Carville.
Agree that Nat’l Defense is important, but the panic mongers are going after Trump where people live day to day.
If economy people could override national defense people John McCain and Mitt Romney would both have been president.
That is not the case.
Properly there are three big issues and to defeat the socialists in a national election a nationalist candidate will have to be conservative in both stated goals and established track record on securing the borders, the economy, and not killing the unborn.
The time when a candidate could run on two out of the three or even one out of the three is over. Trump brought in enough people who hadn’t been voting previously with his secure borders agenda that he overwhelmed the Democrat vote harvesting machine even with the Neocons largely defecting to Hillary Clinton.
His relentless efforts to dismantle the abortion industry will bring in another group who had been kicked to the sidelines by empty promises.
November is still going to be a hard slog and 2024 even more so.
Every candidate who cannot deliver to all three of those constituencies has already lost 2024. Hopefully just in the primaries but if they do not get weeded out there then the Democrats will have already won the general.