Is Donald Trump still planning on announcing his run for the Republican nominee for president in 2024?
The former President said that he would make a big announcement on 15 November, but will do so on the back of a poor showing in the midterms.
After months – maybe even years – of teasing, former President Donald Trump finally looks set to announce his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.
Trump has made no secret of his desire to remain in the spotlight and continues to play an active role in Republican politics, against the wishes of some key members in the party leadership. On the eve of Election Night, Trump told a rally in Dayton Ohio that he had a “very big announcement” planned for Tuesday, 15 November.
But Trump-endorsed candidates fared poorly in the midterms and his omnipotence within the GOP is now being challenged for the first time. Will he go ahead with the announcement?
Trump had initially agreed to postpone the announcement
While announcing a run for 2024 nearly two years out may seem a little premature, Trump is initially thought to have wanted to announce even earlier.
Axios report that Trump told his aides on 7 November that he wanted to announce that very night, on the eve of the midterms. Trump was persuaded to delay the announcement, so not to distract from the midterms, but he made clear that it was coming.
The report adds that some Trump-aligned lawmakers like Sen. Lindsey Graham were concerned about Trump’s plan for an early announcement and pressured him to wait until after the midterms. But have delayed once, he seems unlikely to do the same again.
Where will Trump announce his 2024 presidential run?
Trump’s advisors may have done him a favour by preventing a pre-election announcement, which would have tied his presence even more closely to the GOP underperformance. But after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely GOP challenger in 2024, enjoyed a strong performance in the midterms Trump may wish to re-establish his place at the head of the Republican Party.
As such, he is unlikely to risk losing face by delaying this announcement. At the Ohio rally he was clear about his next step: “I’m going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, November 15, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.”
The choice of location, his private beach club from which he has conducted business since leaving office, is no surprise, but also hints at another element of Trump’s likely campaign.
After DeSantis strengthened his vote share in Florida last week, Trump will want to put down a marker in the state he considers his home. He has already began firing shots at DeSantis in public and that will only intensify once a Trump 2024 run is confirmed.
“Nobody should be surprised. This is how Trump does primaries,” Michael Caputo, a former Trump administration official, told CNN. “The question you have to ask is whether this format can work for him again.”