This is William Weld’s Punxsutawney Phil week.

The former governor of Massachusetts has finally emerged from the subterranean seclusion into which he’d fallen after announcing he “might” primary President Trump. He’s wearing out the shoe leather in New Hampshire, where pride in the lead-off presidential primary will land “First in the Nation” on license plates if the Revolution-inspired “Live Free or Die” ever loses cachet.

Weld’s schedule includes schmoozing with (pro-Trump) Gov. Chris Sununu, addressing voters at the home of the state’s former GOP chairman and shaking hands on the streets of Concord under escort by the state’s (officially neutral) Republican national committeeman. He also let drop that he’s leaning towards making the race and will decide next month.

That’s music to the ears of we Never-Trump Republicans. We hoped the famously marches-to-his-own-drummer Weld — who once plunged into the Charles River fully clothed to prove it was sewage-free — hadn’t been spooked by Donald Trump’s near-90 percent approval rating among the party’s rank-and-file. We wanted him to read polling that suggests 43 percent of Republicans favor a primary challenge to Trump.

Massachusetts Gov. William Weld takes an unannounced dive into the Charles River on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 1996. (Gail Oskin/AP)

The mathematical inconsistency between the polls apparently reflects the fact that even some Republicans in Trump’s corner wouldn’t mind a contest to spice things up. Perhaps they’re moved by photo lineups of the 2020 candidates in which the 17 Democrats running for their party’s nomination sprawl like a two-page spread in a football program; by contrast, Trump and Weld look like a humble double-photo frame on a family mantelpiece.

Other potential GOP challengers — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, ex-Ohio Gov. John Kasich — might be stronger candidates, but so far, only Weld has had the guts to take the field. Skeptics on both left and right would replace “guts” with “nuts,” saying he’s on a kamikaze dive out of which he can’t parachute fast enough. They miss the point.

The goal, despite Weld’s insistence he’d run to win, is not depriving Trump of the nomination, glorious as that would be. Rather, the hope is to soften him up so that the Democrats can finish off this embarrassment of a president come November 2020. That might take fewer Weld votes than the skeptics think.