“Florida man makes announcement.” This is how the conservative tabloid The New York Post, from the Murdoch group, titled its cover story on Wednesday about the pompous act in which Donald Trump had announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections, the night before, at his residence in Mar-a- Lake, Florida. The sardonic phrase referred to the corresponding inside information, no less than on page 26 of the newspaper. There was no room for greater humiliation for the ex-president ultra from a medium of the American right.
Leaders and media of all stripes are already selling Trump’s skin in light of the disappointing results of his key candidates in the November 8 midterm legislative elections. But, as some conservative analysts warn, Republicans who want to turn the page on Trump are divided. And the profusion of leaders of the Republican Party willing to challenge him for the candidacy in 2024, or who at least allow themselves to be loved and do not deny that they are planning it, may make it difficult for the still leader of the party to find an alternative, who has also taken advantage of the career by already announcing your choice to potential voters and donors.
The former Republican president of the House of Representatives (from 2015 to 2019) and candidate for vice president of the Government in 2012, Paul Ryan, exposed this risk during a recent interview on the podcast channel of the consulting firm Teneo, of which he is the number two.
Although he believed that in the end the Republicans will propose a “consolidation” candidate to catalyze an alternative to Trump, what in Ryan’s opinion is on the table today is the possibility of an excessive dispersion of competitors, as occurred in 2016 for the benefit of who would become president by defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton: “The problem is that – again in 2024 – there are too many candidates and that dilutes the no-Trump vote,” he said despite his confidence that the former president “will not be ” the final contender of the party.
But also on this point there are those who, within the American right, think the opposite. For example, conservative analyst Kevin Williamson noted Tuesday in The New York Times that Trump “is not as weak a candidate as many might hope or hope” and in fact “most likely” the party and voters will elect him him as a candidate. Williamson argued that the Republican formation is “a disaster without any political sense”; an organization “torn by bitter recriminations and factional rivalries” that set up “the perfect environment” for the former president.
As of today, Trump is the only candidate registered as such in the Republican ranks. The rest of the possible applicants are supposedly so, either because in fact they are campaigning, or because they actively and passively give signals that they are preparing to run.
The fact is that lists and rankings of potential candidates proliferate in the country’s media. All of them appear led by the ultra-conservative and recently re-elected governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, reinforced by his overwhelming victory over Democrat Charlie Crist at midterm on the 8th by almost 20 points.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott often follow DeSantis on those lists of likely 2024 candidates. But behind them are usually at least half a dozen names; at least until completing a top ten. And Trump, delighted.
