Trump advisers say their ideal Democratic primary scenario is taking shape

— One clear winner has emerged so far from the Democratic presidential contest, according to strategists aligned with the president: Donald Trump.That's the thinking among Republican strategists as Joe Biden's poll numbers have declined in New Hampshire and a two-way race between Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg appeared to emerge ahead of Tuesday's Democratic primary here, yielding what they see as a best-case scenario for Trump.Trump himself agrees. But even if he does not, they are looking to help fuel divisions within the party in hope that Sanders' supporters will stay home in 2020, or even vote for Trump if they feel the Democratic Party unfairly denied Sanders the nomination."If anything, Republicans are trying to prop Bernie up right now, talking about how it is rigged against him," said a person close to the Trump campaign. "They just aren't coming at him with the hard-edge oppo hits yet."Trump's allies say they are confident that Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, and his policies won't catch on with swing voters like suburban women, and they question whether he can turn out the black vote in large enough numbers in swing states like Michigan."He makes it very easy, and easier than the others, to hold the Dems to account for all of the crazy socialist ideas," Chris Wilson, CEO of WPA Intelligence, who ran the research and digital operations for the presidential bid of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in 2016.Republicans can accuse Sanders of being an "unrepentant socialist who spent his honeymoon in the USSR," Wilson said.A campaign official said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who came in third in Iowa, would be a more ideal opponent than Sanders for Trump, because she shares similar policy ideas but doesn't have a similar set of political strengths.Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale told reporters ahead of Iowa that it "would be an early Christmas present" for Warren to rise to the top of the field.The candidates the Trump team most expects to face would pose different challenges.Sanders could reshape the electoral map, forcing Trump to focus on places the campaign had hoped would be locked up but also giving the president an advantage in places the campaign had written off, campaign advisers said.