Despite former President Donald Trump winning the Michigan and South Carolina primaries, some political vulnerabilities have been highlighted, and experts say it is important to consider the context in which the votes have been taking place.

“Even among the Republican primary voters, there are 40% of the people in that state who preferred Haley to Trump,” Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, tells VOA News. “So, bearing in mind that Trump is a former president, has four years of a presidential record, lost a pretty close election in 2020—despite all those things—there's a significant chunk of the Republican Party that is not happy with him.”

In the Mirror article, “Biden's Gaza issue could 'tacitly hand' election to Trump despite former president's 'weakness',” Reeher says that the Democrats are already "worried" about bleeding support of Gaza. “It won't produce votes for a Republican candidate, but it could dampen enthusiasm and turnout in the general election among younger voters and the Democratic Party's Left wing, as well as send some of those voters to the fringe candidates,” he says. 

Reeher was also quoted in the Newsweek article, “MAGA Wins the GOP Civil War.”

“I think we'll have the presence of Trump-sounding or Trump-lite sounding Republicans for a long time, but whether they drive the party is another issue,” Reeher says.