Donald Trump boasts 61 percent support for the GOP nomination to serve a non-consecutive term as president. His next closest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has lost more than half of his support since announcing in May. He stands at 12 percent in the latest Morning Consult poll followed by businessman Vivek Ramaswamy at 9 percent, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley at 6 percent.
DeSantis remains GOP voters’ top second choice with 32 percent.
Trump has emerged as the Teflon candidate. Nothing seems to stick to him politically. Allegations he exaggerated the value of his real estate holdings, with an ongoing trial in New York have resulted in attention being refocused away from him. Instead, Trump supporters have locked onto using statements by Justice Arthur Engoron, the judge overseeing the case, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, to prove that Democrats are waging war in the courtroom over what they will not win in the ballot box due to Joe Biden’s weakness.
Trump’s multiple indictments similarly have been turned into positives by the former president, who has framed them as a “witch hunt.”
Biden Leads Trump By 1 Point
Morning Consult found that Trump trails Biden by a point, 43 percent to 42 percent.
“These numbers may be best considered as a test of electability — a key issue in party primaries that carries all the more significance this time around given concerns about Trump’s baggage and whether the GOP should work to maintain Trump’s coalition or to try to expand its base,” Morning Consult said.
Trump enjoys 75 percent favorability among GOP voters, Morning Consult found.
“The GOP’s primary electorate is 7 percentage points more likely to report having heard something positive than something negative recently about Trump (45 percent to 38 percent). It’s the best net showing of any GOP presidential contender, and continues a sustained improvement on this metric since his Georgia indictment in August,” Morning Consult said.
Biden’s Age Has Voters Worried
Trump and Biden are the oldest men to have ever sought the presidency. Trump is 77 and would be 82 at the end of a second term, while Biden would be 86 if he is elected to a second term. Age is sure to be a major question in the 2024 election.
Biden’s favorability numbers among Democrats are considerably softer than those for Trump, which likely has Democrats worried. Voters are noticing his age.
“A CNN poll contained numerous red flags for Biden and Democrats. It found 46 percent of registered voters said any Republican presidential nominee would be better than Biden in next year’s election, and 49 percent said Biden’s age was their biggest concern about him as a candidate in 2024,” The Hill reported last month. “Biden’s overall approval rating in the poll was 39 percent, and just 74 percent among Democrats.”
It is not one that will disappear. Popular perception suggests that Trump is in better shape than his rival. Elderly voters interviewed by NPR noted that old age can make life difficult for ordinary persons let alone someone with as stressful of a job as the president of the United States.
“My personal opinion is that neither one should be running,” David Reckless, 88, said. “Things go downhill in a hurry sometimes, and I think both of them are in pretty good health right now, but two, three, four years down the road, I’d be concerned about that.”
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
