The sentence with which the head of the American television network CBS commented on the Trump spectacle in the Republican primary campaign in February 2016 still drives Democrats mad today: "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS." Today they are running Democrats risk being driven by the same cynicism.

It's rarely said openly, but the mood in Joe Biden's party after Trump's campaign opening can be summed up like this: It may be bad for democracy, but it's damn good for the Democratic Party.

The calculus is plausible at first glance.

After all, Donald Trump is a loser.

The midterm elections, in which many of the candidates he had pushed through last week flopped, are a sign of increasing weariness with Trump: the former president was suddenly back on television every day, and even many of his voters apparently realized that they hadn't missed him.

Trump's opponents may well know that they cannot rely on it;

the entertainer from New York should come up with a few more ideas to spark new enthusiasm.

But you can console yourself with the fact that Trump's art of mobilization always has this downside: The more stridently he appears to lure politically disaffected Americans into the Republican Party, the more he motivates Democrats and moderate conservatives to support his opponent.

Trump received more votes in 2020 than any Republican before him.

Still, he clearly lost.

Joe Biden, who was not a gifted campaigner in his old age, got about seven million more votes than Trump.

No wonder he thinks he has a good chance against his predecessor.

The primaries will be a slaughterhouse

Many Republicans recognize this, and Trump is unlikely to sail for the nomination as would have been thought possible just a few months ago.

But this prospect also pleases democratic strategists, because between now and the summer of 2024 Trump will fight his rivals with all his might.

No one trusts him to maintain the reluctance towards inner-party rivals that he imposed on himself on Tuesday.

The Democrats' nightmare scenario has now become very unlikely: that Trump could sidestep a like-minded politician like Ron DeSantis and campaign for him among his supporters without the new candidate repelling as many Americans as Trump himself. It would be more likely Trusting Trump to urge his supporters to boycott the election

Before the congressional elections, the Democrats were already particularly cynical about playing the Trump card.

During the Republican primaries, they ran ads in some hard-fought constituencies designed to strengthen Trumpist outsider candidates whom the Democrats thought had a better chance of winning.

The calculation seems to have worked out at the polls;

the disappointingly narrow victory in the House of Representatives for the Republicans also testifies to this.

But it was cynical in a campaign where Biden rightly emphasized that the future of American democracy was at stake.

An unfit commander-in-chief

She continues to do that, and more.

Trump's casual handling of the news surrounding the missile strike in Poland in his speech Tuesday should suffice as a reminder that this part-time NATO-despiser and full-time gambler was, and would be, a miscast as commander-in-chief.

The Democrats must now show the same firmness of principle that they rightly demand of the Republicans.

Trump demands unconditional loyalty, and for him that includes admitting against all facts that the 2020 election was rigged.

The conspiracy theories designed to support this continue to undermine the very foundations of American democracy.

This distrust remains the biggest opponent in the 2024 election.

No less corrosive is Trump's attempt to politicize the judiciary.

His haste to officially throw his hat in the ring already (although that severely limits his access to his bulging campaign treasury) is arguably primarily down to his legal woes.

He faces federal prosecution charges for his role in the January 2021 storming of the Capitol and for his handling of classified documents after the White House evacuation;

The state of Georgia is also prosecuting Trump's attempt to force the local government to reverse the election results.

With the midterm elections approaching, Trump could feel quite safe as the Biden administration did not want to further the inevitable charge of politicization with an indictment just before the election.

With his candidacy, Trump has now taken steps to ensure that an indictment is not directed against a private individual, but against a presidential candidate.

He would then continue singing the song of the witch hunt.

"I'm a victim," Trump has already announced and promised to abolish the FBI.

No one can blame the Democrats for trying to drive the Trump wedge into the Republican electorate.

But they shouldn't sharpen it themselves, and they shouldn't be too sure of victory either.

As a little refresher lesson, talk to Hillary Clinton.

Note: Anything can happen in an election campaign.