Trumps Fixation On The Past Puts His Political Future In Limbo
But some Trump allies believe he may ultimately opt against a run, either for health reasons or, if Bidens poll numbers rebound, because he doesnt want to risk a second loss, even though he has yet to acknowledge the first defeat.
So far, a slew of prominent Republicans have begun making overt moves to run in 2024. Whether they will abandon their own White House dreams if the former president were to run again is another matter entirely.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sens. Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz are among those who made appearances in early voting states, and some have started securing top political consultants. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has hinted shed mount a bid but wouldnt run against Trump if he decides to enter the race. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has suggested he may run even if Trump does. And there is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has emerged as an heir-apparent to Trump and the populist MAGA movement.
Things may be just as uncertain on the Democratic side of the ledger. If Biden opts against seeking reelection, the field may not clear out for Vice President Kamala Harris, who has yet to find her political footing in the role. Two 2020 candidates, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker , each have held recent high-profile events on hot button election topics.
If Biden opts to seek a second term, a serious primary challenge would be unlikely.
Others Who Didn’t Make The Ballot
Austin Chenge: The Grand Rapids-based businessman, who faced eligibility issues, dropped out of the race in March and endorsed Rinke.
Chenge had released a series of proposals to end voting machine contracts, “cancel Black History Month” and make Michigan a “constitutional carry” for firearms by eliminating the need for a concealed pistol permit.
Bob Scott: The Howell-area substitute teacher did not submit signatures to qualify for the GOP primary ballot but is considering an independent run.
Scott described himself as a strong supporter of the First and Second Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which protect free speech and firearm rights.
Evan Space: The Lansing resident did not submit signatures to qualify for the GOP primary ballot for the second time in as many cycles. He also failed to make the ballot in 2018.
Space had leaned into his name, promising to establish space exploration launch sites and related college programs. Among his other novel proposals, Space said he would appoint a lieutenant governor to run the Upper Peninsula and treat it more like an independent state.
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On another issue important to voters, Morris said Trump and the Republicans have a strong hand to play as the law-and-order party and paint Biden and the Democrats as soft on crime during the fall midterms and in 2024.
He said the left wing of the Democratic Partys campaign to defund the police is a gift to Trump and the GOP.
The crime issue is particularly toxic for the Democrats, because it is obvious to voters that it was not nearly as bad a problem before Biden was elected. Back in 2019, and before, crime had fallen out of the headlines and faded in popular consciousness. But after Bidens election, the movement to defund the police, and the vilification of dedicated, responsible, fair, and hardworking police officers has set the crime rate soaring. So who is to blame? Figure it out!, Morris said.
The Left wants to cut the number of uniformed police and replace them with social workers and psychologists to stem violence and escalation. So the next time you worry that a criminal is trying to break into your home, call 911 and wait for a social worker to arrive, he said.
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Former Rep Joe Sestak D
Sestak, a former Pennsylvania congressman and a retired three-star admiral in the U.S. Navy, dropped out of the race on Dec. 1. He entered the field at the onset of the first presidential debates in June, despite never qualifying for one.
“I know there is a tear in that fabric right now but it can be repaired by someone who can lead, and therefore unite, all Americans,” Sestak wrote in a announcing the end of his candidacy.
Trump Thinks Bernie Sanders Will Run Against Him ‘in A Wheelchair’ In 2020
Jessica Kwong U.S.Bernie SandersDonald TrumpHillary ClintonElizabeth Warren
President Donald Trump forecasted that Bernie Sanders would run against him in 2020 “even if he’s in a wheelchair,” and mocked the Vermont senator by imitating a scrunched-up body.
Trump expressed that opinion over the summer when he invited four Democratic lawmakers to the White House, and also asked, “Who is going to run against me in 2020? Crooked Hillary? Pocahontas?” the New York Times reported on Saturday.
At 70 years old, Trump was the oldest president to be inaugurated in the U.S. Trump, now 71, is nearly five years younger than Sanders, who would turn 79 in 2020.
But Sanders’s wife Jane in June said that the senator was actively advocating for policies benefiting the working class and that his age wasn’t a factor.
“Ageism is the last ‘ism’ that seems to be acceptable to people, and I never felt that it was whether somebody was too young or too old,” she told the New York Times. “You win some. You lose some. And you keep on going and maybe you can win the next one.”
Bernie Sanders, who lost the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton last year, has started addressing some of his political shortcomings including his lack of foreign policy connections, a sign he may be gearing up for a 2020 bid, POLITICO reported late last month.
Other Democrats that Trump called out over the summer have not indicated they will make a bid for the presidency.
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Question6 Overall Do You Think The Country Is Better Off Or Worse Off Today Than It Was A Year Ago
ADULTS..................................................... WHITE........ 4 YR COLL DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes NoBetter 41% 5% 76% 38% 37% 45% 53% 25%Worse 52 94 14 56 56 48 44 70SAME 5 1 7 4 4 5 1 3DK/NA 3 - 2 2 3 2 2 3 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk HspBetter 44% 43% 37% 40% 30% 38% 34% 67% 42%Worse 44 51 58 56 65 58 61 24 50SAME 8 4 4 2 2 2 2 7 4DK/NA 4 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 4
The Claim: President Donald Trump Won The 2020 Election
Weeks after the bitterly fought presidential race ended with the naming of Joe Biden as the projected winner over President Donald Trump, some are still claiming a victor can not yet be named.
President Trump won and the world is starting to see! Fight on Patriots to #Victory! a Nov. 29 reads. The user who made the post did not respond to USA TODAYs request for comment.
That same claim has been promoted by the president himself, who has not yet conceded the election to Biden.
NO WAY WE LOST THIS ELECTION! Trump tweeted Nov. 29, along with a video of his supporters.
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Opposition To Trump Remains: ‘i Would Have To Do Quite A Bit Of Soul Searching’
But even as Trump mulls a campaign rollout, other would-be GOP contenders have been flooding the state, including former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Iowa Republicans again plan to hold their heralded first-in-the-nation caucuses, and the early visits indicate Trump would likely face at least some opposition.
Glenna Bents is among the 33% of Iowa Republicans who hope Trump does not seek the partys nomination.
If he’s a political leader, then I must not be a political follower, she said.
Bents, a 75-year-old Ames resident and poll respondent, said she approves of the job Iowa Republicans such as U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds are doing. But she doesnt appreciate Trumps vulgarness and is looking for someone with diplomacy, manners and respect.
If Trump is the partys eventual nominee, she said, I would have to do quite a bit of soul searching before voting for him in the general election.
The share of Iowa Republicans who say they feel more allegiance to Trump than to the Republican Party has fallen from 26% in November 2021 to 21% today. Seventy percent now say they feel more allegiance to the Republican Party up from 61% in 2021.
Brett Funk, a 32-year-old Sheffield resident and poll respondent, said he would like to see Trump run again, but only because he sees him as beatable.
Political Activities Up To 2015
Trump’s political party affiliation has changed numerous times. He registered as a Republican in Manhattan in 1987, switched to the Reform Party in 1999, the Democratic Party in 2001, and back to the Republican Party in 2009.
Trump first floated the idea of running for president in 1987, placing full-page advertisements in three major newspapers, proclaiming “America should stop paying to defend countries that can afford to defend themselves.” The advertisements also advocated for “reducing the budget deficit, working for peace in Central America, and speeding up nuclear disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union“.DCCC chair Rep. Beryl Anthony Jr. told The New York Times that “the message Trump has been preaching is a Democratic message.” Asked whether rumors of a presidential candidacy were true, Trump denied being a candidate, but said, “I believe that if I did run for President, I’d win.” In 1988, he approached Lee Atwater asking to be put into consideration as Republican nominee George H.W. Bush‘s running mate. Bush found the request “strange and unbelievable.” According to a Gallup poll in December 1988, Trump was the tenth most admired man in America.
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America Is Not Ready For Trumps Second Term
And he could win, fair and square.
About the author: David A. Graham is a staff writer at The Atlantic.
The United States was unprepared for the scope of President Donald Trumps attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election. By Election Day, Trump had spent months calling the election rigged, and historians and democracy experts warned of the damage that these false claims could make. But when the president stepped to a lectern in the White House late on Election Night and insisted hed won, many Americans were taken aback. Much worse was still to come: Trump calling Georgias secretary of state, asking him to find 11,000 votes attempting to weaponize the Justice Department and instigating the failed January 6 insurrection.
Americans are ready now. If anything, theyre overprepared. Many members of the uneasy coalition of Democrats and former Republicans who oppose Trump are frantically focused on the danger of Trump and his GOP allies trying to steal the 2022 and especially 2024 elections. This is not without justification many of Trumps henchmen, meanwhile, are frantically focused on stealing it. But these watchdogs risk missing the graver danger: Trump could win this fair and square.
The possibility remains that they might try everything else and then opt for the wrong thing after all.
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Whos Running For President In 2020
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge President Trump in the 2020 race.
The field of Democratic presidential candidates was historically large, but all others have dropped out. Mr. Trump had also picked up a few Republican challengers, but they have also ended their campaigns.
Running
Has run for president twice before.
Is known for his down-to-earth personality and his ability to connect with working-class voters.
His eight years as Barack Obamas vice president are a major selling point for many Democrats.
Signature issues: Restoring Americas standing on the global stage adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act strengthening economic protections for low-income workers in industries like manufacturing and fast food.
Main legislative accomplishment as president: a sweeping tax cut that chiefly benefited corporations and wealthy investors.
Has focused on undoing the policies of the Obama administration, including on health care, environmental regulation and immigration.
Was impeached by the House of Representatives for seeking to pressure Ukraine to smear his political rivals, but was acquitted by the Senate.
Signature issues: Restricting immigration and building a wall at the Mexican border renegotiating or canceling international deals on trade, arms control and climate change withdrawing American troops from overseas.
Ended her campaign in March 2020 and said she would back Mr. Biden.
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Notable Expenditures And Allegations Of Grifting
Trump properties
In June 2018, ProPublica reported that Trump Organization properties had received at least $16.1 millionfrom his campaign, Republican organizations, and government agencies since late 2015. In October 2019, OpenSecrets found that total spending on Trump properties had increased to $16.8 million even when just considering payments made by the Trump campaign and other Republican political campaigns and PACs .
During the first three months of 2017, the Trump 2020 campaign reported spending $6.3 million, of which nearly $500,000 was to companies owned by Trump. In the Trump 2020 campaigns first two years , it paid more than $890,000 in rent for space in Trump Tower, while the Republican National Committee paid $225,000. As of October 2020, the campaigns committees had directed more than $17.9 million of campaign donor money to Trump properties, while the Republican National Committee had paid $3.0 million.
Legal and compliance work
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As of March 2019, Trumps campaign had spent almost twice as much on Facebook and Google ads as the entire Democratic field combined.
Memorabilia
During the first three months of his presidency, his reelection campaign spent more than $4 million on memorabilia.
Money funneled through Brad Parscale
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He rose national prominence during his unsuccessful run against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018 and officially announced his presidential campaign in mid-March, calling it “a defining moment of truth for this country and for every single one of us.”
Within days, O’Rourke’s campaign announced it raised over $6.1 million in the first 24 hours following his announcement, topping Sen. Bernie Sanders’ previous high-water mark of $5.9 million.
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Yes Of Course Donald Trump Can Win In 2024
When I meet people and they find out I am a political reporter, they inevitably and immediately ask some version of this question: Is he going to run again? And can he win?
The he there just in case youve spent the last six years on another planet is Donald Trump.
And the answers to those questions are probably yes and definitely. As in, yes, Trump is probably going to run for president again in 2024. And, yes, he would have a very real chance of winning.
Lets take the second half of that question first. A new Wall Street Journal poll shows Trump and President Joe Biden each at 45% among registered voters in a hypothetical 2024 matchup, results that are largely unchanged since the last time WSJ asked the question in November.
The simple fact is that if the 2020 presidential race was re-run today, it would effectively be a pure toss up.
Which, if you think about it, makes sense. While Biden took more than 300 electoral votes, his margins in a series of swing states like Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were decidedly narrow. And had those states gone for Trump, he would have almost certainly been reelected.
Now, that is putting the cart before the horse. So, lets return to the first question: Will Trump run?
If you believe him, then yes.
But, its true.
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Where Republican Voters Stand
Georgia Rep. Jody Hice speaks during a rally last September as former President Donald Trump looks on. Trump endorsed Hice, who falsely believes fraud tainted the 2020 election, in the Georgia secretary of state race, but Hice was defeated.
Sean Rayford / Getty Images
Even though polling data indicates a majority of Republican voters still believe fraud impacted the 2020 election, primary results this year suggest a more complicated picture, as a number of prominent election deniers have lost races running against more moderate candidates who did not spread misinformation about the 2020 results.
Overall, in contests held before August, States United found that election deniers have actually lost more GOP primary contests than theyve won in races for governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
That includes in Georgia, which saw Trump-endorsed Rep. Jody Hice lose in the Republican primary for secretary of state to incumbent Brad Raffensperger, who has spent the past two years arguing that the 2020 election was free and fair.
Also notable was Colorado, where election denial hero and Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is facing charges for allegedly tampering with election equipment, lost in her bid for the Republican nomination for secretary of state.
Peters finished second, and the winner, former Jefferson County Clerk Pam Anderson, told Colorado Public Radio that it was a sign that voters want professionals elected to these sorts of offices.
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Question8 Would You Like To See Donald Trump Run For President In 2024 Or Not
ADULTS..................................................... WHITE........ 4 YR COLL DEG Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes NoYes 35% 78% 4% 35% 40% 30% 24% 53%No 58 16 94 58 51 64 71 41DK/NA 7 6 2 7 8 5 6 7 AGE IN YRS.............. WHITE..... 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk HspYes 29% 37% 40% 37% 50% 37% 43% 9% 33%No 63 56 55 57 44 57 51 89 58DK/NA 8 8 5 6 6 6 6 2 8
