PREEMPTIVE STRIKE: Trump predicted to announce 2024 run after midterms to STYMIE DeSantis
People close to former president Donald Trump are saying that he’ll announce his run for the 2024 Republican nomination for president after Election Day. He’s raised a ton of money to be able to do so.
Dirty Donald has been floating his trial balloons for a while now. At the Robstown rally in Texas, he told the crowd, “In order to make our country successful, safe, and glorious again, I will probably have to do it again,” referring to a third attempt at the White House.
Despite a laundry list of lawsuits and legal troubles weighing against him, including a subpoena from the House Select Committee for his role in leading the January 6 insurrection, a Justice Department investigation into his stealing of classified documents and storing them at Mar-a-Lago, a fraud case brought by NY Attorney General Letitia James against the Trump Organization, and a civil defamation lawsuit from E. Jean Carroll, who has made a credible accusation of rape against Trump…(Whew! I’m outa breath!)…Trump is likely planning to announce his candidacy following the midterms.
When Joe Biden was declared President of the United States, Americans danced and partied in the streets.
When Donald Trump is prosecuted, the celebration will be even bigger.
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) November 1, 2022
Announcing before the midterms would likely have made the election about him, which GOP party leaders definitely did not want. By announcing right after the election, however, Trump can avoid any Republican wrath and subvert the efforts of other possible candidates, like Ron DeSantis (“Trump-lite”) or Ted Cruz (hater of Muslims and green eggs and ham).
“I’m like 95% he’s going to run,” Trump’s short-lived White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, told the AP. “The real question is: are other big challengers going to run? If President Trump runs, he will be very difficult for any Republican to defeat.”
Now, normally I would doubt my own name if Reince Priebus told it to me, but in this case, he’s probably correct. As implausible as it seems that someone would run who was impeached twice and has multiple open investigations against him– and who even 43% of Republicans say should not run for president again, according to an AP-NORC poll – Trump seems on track to announce anyway.
For starters, his Trump Tower-sized ego makes it so that he always has to get the most attention and have people constantly fawn over him. He can’t stand to see others take the reins.
Like Alice Roosevelt once said about her father (a pretty far cry from Trump), he has to be “the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding, and the baby at every christening.”
Our one true hope is that DeSantis has just as big an ego and that there will be a bitter fight.
But Trump is preparing for that fight. He’s got two major PACs that have been raising a ton of money: MAGA Inc, which the AP says recently spent over $16 million on ads to support chosen candidates; and the Save America PAC, which has reportedly raised around $350 million for the 2022 elections.
A quick historical lesson: Julius Caesar was facing charges from certain quarters of the Roman Senate when he decided to seek the consulship again. This would have made him immune to those charges while in office. When the Senate refused him, he crossed the Rubicon, sparking a civil war.
Trump may seek the presidency for a similar reason. If he succeeds, that in and of itself would be terrible. But if he fails, what will his Rubicon be? Don’t assume that January 6 was as bad as it can get.
The Trumps hate Ross. And so you should like him on Twitter! @RossRosenfeld
