Coming Soon: Donald Trump 2024? A senior source close to former President Donald Trump claims that the former president “has to” announce his 2024 presidential campaign sooner rather than later to avoid being indicted under the Espionage Act following the unprecedented FBI raid of his Palm Beach home last week.
According to a report by The Guardian, citing communications reviewed by the outlet, the senior Trump source said that the former president must announce his third run for the White House within the next two weeks to make it harder for the United States Department of Justice to indict him. By announcing his campaign, the source suggested, the FBI would no longer be targeting a private citizen but also a high-profile presidential candidate with a good chance of winning in two and a half years.
A source also told the news outlet that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the most popular hypothetical 2024 GOP candidate other than Trump, should wait until Trump announces his intentions in 2024 to decide whether or not he should launch a presidential campaign of his own.
“He can wait,” the source said of the Florida governor – a position that DeSantis may take more seriously now that former President Trump is galvanizing Republican support off the back of the politically charged raid of his Mar-a-Lago home.
“Fired Up” Trump Already Made Up His Mind
Republican Rep. Jim Banks, one of a dozen Republican legislators who met with the president a day after the raid, told Fox News that a decision has already been made about a 2024 presidential run.
“He didn’t seem defeated in the least bit, he was very fired up, very upbeat,” Banks said.
Banks revealed that he and other members of the House Republican Study Committee met the former president for a “great three-hour-long” chat at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club.
The Indiana representative, a Trump loyalist, also added to the rumors that Trump would make his announcement sooner rather than later. Banks revealed how Trump said he had “made up his mind” and that he enjoyed encouragement from Republicans to “get the decision out sooner rather than later.”
“He said we are going to like his decision and it is only a matter of time before he will make that decision known,” Banks told Fox.
Is It Worth It?
While it looks as though the former president has already made a decision, he’ll still need to carefully consider the possible downsides of making an announcement too early.
Given how much credit the former president has taken in the many primary election victories for candidates he endorsed, he will almost certainly be blamed by some Republicans if GOP candidates don’t perform as well as expected in November. Should Trump announce his presidential campaign before the November midterms, any possible losses could be pinned on his campaign, with some centrist voters potentially being put off from voting Republican if they believe it is a proxy vote for Trump.
Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
The former president also risks losing the financial support of the Republican National Convention in the various lawsuits filed against him, and risks opening himself up to attack from potential 2024 GOP presidential contenders at a time when he needs the full backing of the party behind him.
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
