If Nikki Haley is the new hope for sane Republicans, poor her

NIKKI HALEY scored two big-money prestige endorsements last week that strikingly boost her standing in the Republican primaries. The Koch brothers' conservative money machine, Americans for Prosperity Action, lined up behind the former South Carolina governor, a move that could provide her with maximum financial support, especially if she overtakes, as she seems poised to do, Ron DeSantis as the designated Trump alternative. And then she captured the public favour of Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, a mega donor and major business voice.

- Michael Wolff

The problem is that the Koch money and the Dimon influence have, since 2015 when Donald Trump first came down the Trump Tower stairs to announce his candidacy, been wholly opposite indicators of political success. Haley's own personal fortunes and media profile might be dramatically improving, but the endorsements are another red flag that she has no hope whatsoever of competing with Trump or, for that matter, ever becoming a presidential nominee in today's Republican party.

The Koch group and Dimon - and Haley are part of a new fantasy world in American politics. This fantasy is widely supported by the media eager for a horse race and even by many Democrats with their anybodybut-Trump hope and ancillary fear (eg that a "normal" Republican would easily sweep Joe Biden) of a return to a recognisable internationalist and business-centred Republican party.

It's a fantasy holding that there is actual competition in the Republican party between the Trump wing and more mainstream types, or that, at any moment, the Republican mass fever will break and normalcy will return. A variation on this is that Trump himself is the virus and without him and that time will come a well-positioned normal Republican like Haley could thrive in a recovered and healthy party.