Tim Scott of South Carolina launched his campaign for the White House last week, the notoriously prickly former President Donald Trump welcomed his new competitor with open arms. There were no accusations of disloyalty or nasty nicknames from the GOP front-runner like the barrage he unleashed when Florida Gov.

Donald Trump and his team have long believed the more candidates who enter the Republican primary contest, the better for Trump. And the field is growing by the day.

In the coming weeks, at least four additional candidates are expected to launch their own campaigns, joining a field that already includes DeSantis, Scott, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, tech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy and several longer-shots like conservative talk radio host Larry Elder.

Trump and his team are operating under the assumption that no other candidate will be able to consolidate enough of the anti-Trump vote to take him down.