Biden heads into State of the Union address with good news: Trump will be his opponent

President Joe Biden heads into Thursday night's State of the Union address on the heels of great news: Republican primary voters have made it clear they want an election denier eyebrow-deep in legal peril as their candidate.

Nikki Haley dropped out of the GOP primary Wednesday, assuring Biden and his team will face off against former president, current criminal defendant and Democratic-voter-turnout machine Donald Trump.

That is, without question, exactly what the Biden campaign wanted.

Soon, all eyes will be on Donald Trump, which can only help Joe Biden

In the GOP primary, Trump has been an unstoppable force. The Republican Party and a large swath of its voters are now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump Organization, a collection of loyalists, fanboys/fangirls and spineless tail-smoochers bending the knee to a man who brought them ugly red hats, one presidential victory ... and nothing else.

To those outside the cult of personality, and particularly to those handling Biden’s reelection campaign, Trump is a proven loser, a profoundly flawed opponent mired in legal trouble, incapable of self-control and surrounded by incompetent minions.

Could he win the 2024 presidential election? Absolutely. There are so many variables between now and November – including Biden’s own flaws and the left’s ability to acknowledge the danger Trump presents and vote accordingly – that any outcome is possible.

But if you’re Biden or a Democratic strategist, is there a foe you’d rather face in the election? Absolutely not.

Brace yourselves: 2024 campaign narrative about to shift

The presidential election narrative has focused on three things: Trump’s competitors in the GOP primary; voter attitudes relating to the economy; and a number of national polls showing Trump leading Biden.

But a shift is coming, and it’s significant.

Haley can still help defeat Trump: Nikki Haley and her voters still have a chance to be heroes. They need to vote for Biden.

While Trump's die-hard fans have always believed he would be the Republican nominee, plenty of normal, good-hearted Americans will be surprised to learn he’s actually the GOP pick.

“Wait a minute, Republicans are going with him again? Really?”

State of the Union gives Biden audience to talk about Trump

Bradley Beychok, co-founder of the pro-Biden Super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, told Politico: "Super Tuesday was always circled on our calendars because there’s a segment of persuadable voters who don’t believe that this was going to be a rematch.

"This is going to be a ‘What’s behind door No. 2?’ election, and door No. 2 is a second Trump term, and that’s terrifying. Voters need to remember how chaotic the first Trump presidency was.”

Biden will likely start reminding them during his State of the Union speech.

Those who've been sitting on the sidelines will start to remember the chaos of the Trump years and the daily worry of what nutty comment or social media post would come next. They’ll start hearing the hateful, droning madness of his rally speeches and see his skill at bringing out the worst in people.

The stakes of the election will become far more apparent to the average person who doesn’t spend all day plugged into national political news.

Polls showing Trump beating Biden? They're fixin' to change.

As to the national polling that has, with relative consistency, shown Trump leading Biden, there’s first the simple fact that national polls this far out from an election are largely worthless.

Most people aren’t dialed in to the presidential race yet, and again, there are a multitude of variables in the months ahead, ranging from the health of both candidates to Trump’s myriad trials and legal issues.

Trump is vulnerable: Sure, Nikki Haley lost big on Super Tuesday. But warning signs for Trump are flashing.

Trump and Republicans have been losing elections for years. After he was elected, his party lost the midterm elections, then he lost reelection, then he dragged Republicans down in the 2022 midterms, turning an expected "red wave" into a sweeping disappointment.

He boasts of being the only president who, via his Supreme Court justice appointments, was able to get Roe v. Wade knocked down. That has proved wildly unpopular and has led to Democratic over-performance in every election since.

If Biden created opponent in a lab, it would look like Trump

There are no sure things in our political climate. Trump could win. Biden could win.

But as Trump locks up the GOP presidential nomination, I can forecast that Biden and his campaign team are all smiles. Haley had the best chance at beating Biden. Trump is the one they wanted.

Trump's a candidate so polarizing and so easy to attack you’d think he was the product of a satirical political science experiment. A candidate who’ll spend as much time in a courtroom as he does on the campaign trail.

A candidate who managed to win once and then, in the elections that mattered, lost over and over and over again.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden's State of the Union should focus on Trump's danger to democracy