His opponents Donald Trump for the Republican party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election clashed yesterday, Wednesday, in another chaotic debate, launching attacks against the former president, who was absent from the debate, and against each other.

After the debate ended, however, none of the seven candidates who participated in it seemed to have managed to stand out and consequently change the dynamics of the primaries, in which Trump remains the clear favorite.

The Republican billionaire, who according to the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll has a 37-point lead over his rivals, snubbed this second debate, as he did the first in August.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis blamed Trump that it is “missing battle time” and that it has added trillions of dollars to the US national debt.

“He should be on this stage tonight,” DeSandis said to applause from the audience at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. “He owes it to you to defend his actions.”

The Florida governor, whose popularity is falling despite initially being seen as the best alternative to Trump, appears more willing to attack the former president after months of avoiding doing so.

For his part, former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, a frequent critic of Trump, estimated that the former president is “scared”.

Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, mildly criticized the former president’s desire to centralize power in the federal government and pledged to strengthen states’ powers.

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said Trump had the wrong approach to China by focusing solely on trade rather than broader security issues.

US President Joe Biden was also targeted by the seven candidates, who criticized him for his economic and immigration policies.

But the candidates spent most of the evening trading blows with each other.

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, a newcomer to politics, had come under heavy fire from his opponents during the first debate in August.

“Every time I listen to you, I feel a little dumber,” Haley said after Ramaswamy justified himself for opening an account on TikTok, a platform owned by a Chinese company that has raised concerns among US officials. Ramaswamy explained that he uses it to reach out to younger voters.

Minutes before the start of the debate, the 77-year-old Trump delivered a speech to strikers of the three largest US auto manufacturers in Michigan. By snubbing the two debates, the former president wanted to show that his focus is on Biden, who looks set to be his opponent again in the 2024 election, and not on his rivals for the Republican nomination.

Immigration in focus

All candidates pledged to adopt strict measures to deal with irregular migration and attacked the Biden administration for failing to manage the immigration crisis on the US southern border.

DeSandis promised to expand the armed forces to deal with Mexican cartels, while Ramaswamy said he would revoke the birthright citizenship of the children of those who entered the country illegally.

When asked to comment on the auto workers’ strike, Senator Tim Scott dodged the question, preferring to criticize Biden, who on Tuesday joined a picket line for the strikers.

“Biden shouldn’t be at the picketing,” he stressed. “He should be at the southern border and working to close it because it’s not safe, it’s wide open and it’s unsafe, which has led to the death of 70,000 Americans in the last 12 months because of fentanyl.”

Most candidates indicated they would continue to support Ukraine, although DeSandis said he would not give Kiev a “blank check.” Ramaswamy, who has previously said he would freeze aid to Ukraine, warned that backing Kiev was pushing Russia closer to China, a statement that drew fresh criticism from his opponents.