Report: Trump Talking Privately Lately About Running In 2024





Via Hot Air


The Art of the Steal: Exposing Fraud & Vulnerabilities in America’s Elections



He can’t run in 2024 if he ends up winning this election, of course, and as I write this there’s still a chance of that happening. But the odds are against him. The White House is worried about Pennsylvania calling a lid on the Trump presidency tonight. And they should be.

I’m not as sure as other people are that he’ll run in 2024 but the idea is allegedly being kicked around by Trump himself. The key bit in this passage from the Times isn’t that he’s thinking of running, though, it’s that he’ll continue to have influence over not just who rises within the GOP but how the government functions.

Mr. Trump has long toyed with starting his own television network to compete with Fox News, and in private lately he has broached the idea of running again in 2024, although he would be 78 by then. Even if his own days as a candidate are over, his 88-million-strong Twitter following gives him a bullhorn to be an influential voice on the right, potentially making him a kingmaker among rising Republicans…

That following may yet enable Mr. Trump to eke out a second term and four years to try to rebuild the economy and reshape the Republican Party in his image. But even from out of office, he could try to pressure Republican senators who preserved their majority to resist Mr. Biden at every turn, forcing them to choose between conciliation or crossing his political base.

Until a new generation of Republicans steps forward, Mr. Trump could position himself as the de facto leader of the party, wielding an extraordinary database of information about his supporters that future candidates would love to rent or otherwise access. Allies imagined other Republicans making a pilgrimage to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida seeking his blessing.

I don’t think there’ll be a huge “conciliation” wing of the GOP with or without pressure from Trump. There’s also a group of Republicans who have little reason to care what he thinks. McConnell, Collins, and Sasse just won reelection; Murkowski and Romney are quasi-independents and can probably win even with Trump opposing them. But it’ll take 11 or 12 Republicans to beat a filibuster next year on compromise bills and that’d be a heavy lift with Trump hectoring them from the sidelines to vote no on everything in order to make the guy who defeated him miserable.

Which, of course, he’d certainly do. If he’s willing to try to con Americans into believing the election is being stolen from him, he’s willing to use whatever leverage he has to making sure that the U.S. government under Biden effectively can’t operate. Trump is spite incarnate; it’s the whole reason for his appeal. If McConnell wants to work with Biden on anything, he’ll need to find another half-dozen Republicans in his caucus willing to defy Trump and risk enraging his fans. Good luck.

I’ve made this comparison before, but think of the GOP in 2021 as the Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life.” Trump is the kid, the congressional GOP are the adults around him indulging his whims, nervously flattering him about how wonderful he is so as not to earn his wrath, and wishing to God every second of the day that they could be rid of his malevolent selfishness. Key difference: The kid wasn’t as vindictive as Trump is.

In fact, it’s already going on today by proxy. Don Jr tweeted this a little while ago…


He’s signaling to 2024 aspirants that if they don’t get a lot more enthusiastic about the Trump “voter fraud” con they’ll have no chance at an endorsement from the president, assuming he doesn’t run again himself. . . . Full Article By AllahPundit @ Hot Air


Win or Lose, Trump Will Remain a Powerful and Disruptive Force

Even if he is defeated, he has made clear that he would not shrink from the scene.

WASHINGTON — If President Trump loses his bid for re-election, as looked increasingly likely on Wednesday, it would be the first defeat of an incumbent president in 28 years. But one thing seemed certain: Win or lose, he will not go quietly away.

Trailing former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Trump spent the day trying to discredit the election .....That gives him a power base to play a role that other defeated one-term presidents like Jimmy Carter and George Bush have not played. Mr. Trump has long toyed with starting his own television network to compete with Fox News, and in private lately he has broached the idea of running again in 2024, although he would be 78 by then. Even if his own days as a candidate are over, his 88-million-strong Twitter following gives him a bullhorn to be an influential voice on the right, potentially making him a kingmaker among rising Republicans. . . Full Article By Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman @ NY Times