“You need someone who’s not intimidated by the Breitbart convention, somebody who has the capacity to understand that the power of Steve Bannon and Ann Coulter is illusory,” Schmidt said. He described a culture of timidity and fear, where some Republican leaders are acting like “prey animals” who are “constantly skittish, looking nervously over their shoulders for the predator who is about to get them.”



Any Trump opponent would also need to match the President’s talent for drawing free media and defining the daily narrative. Terry Sullivan, who ran Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign, described the ability to get earned media attention as the top criteria for any Trump foe.



“It’s one of these situations where money almost doesn’t matter, because you need more than money,” Sullivan said. “An ability to get media attention is going to be critical.”