Another Republican Debate without 2024 frontrunner and former President Donald Trump meant another debate with candidates fighting for second place, The Post’s experts agreed Wednesday.

“They all have trouble because of Trump,” said former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato. “Trump was smart by not going. The debate was a circus. Nobody really scored on him.”

“Without Trump there, it’s really like the seven dwarfs are missing their hero,” agreed Democratic consultant Chris Coffey. “No clear win is a win for Trump, which may be a win for Biden.”

“No impact on President Trump’s nomination,” concurred E. O’Brien Murray, a campaign strategist for Republicans and conservative Democrats. “Too many GOP candidates divide the vote.”

While the dynamic of the race may not have been fundamentally altered, our experts took note of the attacks on Trump as “missing in action” by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“I was surprised to see DeSantis go after Trump,” admitted Murray. “He used to avoid that. Going after Trump makes his supporters much less likely to ever support you. Chris Christie has been constant on this and he doesn’t move in the polls.”

“DeSantis had his best debate yet, but is it far too little and far too late?” mused Coffey. “Is it enough to change his course? Hard to say.”

The Post panel was also full of praise for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who got into scrapes with DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) over energy, TikTok and the economy, respectively.

“Nikki Haley made her few minutes strong,” said Murray, while GOP consultant Rob Ryan said the former ambassador to the United Nations “looked and sounded presidential.”

“Haley looked strong for much of the debate, though the fight with Tim Scott was unnecessary,” agreed Coffey, while D’Amato dissented, saying Haley “is trying hard to be the number two. She was a little too aggressive. I thought that was a mistake.”

Scott’s performance also got a thumbs-up from Ryan, who said the Republican senator “showed the most improvement from the first debate.”

“Scott in the first debate didn’t have passion. In this debate he had passion,” Ryan added, before noting that the clash between the two Palmetto Staters showed “they realize they have to take each other out to have a chance. One of them has to win South Carolina.”

“Tim Scott did good when he talked about racism and how America has made great progress,” agreed D’Amato. “I think he helped himself.”

The verdict on Christie ranged from “pretty good” (D’Amato) to “good” (Coffey).

“Christie going after Trump is fun to watch, but hard to say if it helps with Republican primary voters,” Coffey said. “Look out in the general election, when Dems and Biden supporters will happily play the ‘Donald Duck’ line about Trump over and over.”

After an eye-catching performance in the first debate, the panelists agreed that Ramaswamy had a poor night, with Murray saying he “had an opportunity to shine, but failed. His reactions to the attacks only made me wonder why they wasted precious time attacking him.”

“Vivek identified his faults, but he did nothing to solve them,” said Ryan, who added that the 38-year-old “also needs a haircut. That pompadour is a little distracting.”

“Vivek just comes across as so unlikeable, fake, smarmy, interrupting,” said Coffey. “Nikki Haley is right. We are all stupider for listening to Vivek.”

The Democratic consultant also panned Mike Pence’s effort as “a dud”: “Not liked by the crowd in the room and his lines missed. None of his applause lines landed. Sometimes the dogs just don’t like the dog food.”

In the end, summed up Murray, “Reagan’s 11th commandment [Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican] was spoken but not followed. More attacks on President Biden and even the vice president would have been better than the crosstalk and attacks on other GOP candidates.”