After a failed Republican sweep in the US midterm elections, former President Donald Trump’s allies are divided over his planned 2024 presidential campaign announcement next week. While his top political staffers at Mar-a-Lago are pressing him to move forward, others are suggesting him to delay till the Senate runoff in Georgia.
The results have been disappointing for the Republicans anticipating a red wave and had raised new questions about Trump’s appeal and the future of a party that has fully embraced him, seemingly at its peril.
“I’ll be advising him that he move his announcement until after the Georgia runoff,” said former Trump adviser Jason Miller, who spent the night with the former president at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “Georgia needs to be the focus of every Republican in the country right now,” he said.
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Trump has publicly suggested that he intends to announce his 2024 presidential campaign next week as planned. He sought to use the midterms as an opportunity to prove his enduring political influence after losing the White House in 2020.
After the disappointing results in the midterms, Trump is concerned and remain unclear on how to proceed. Many Trump Republican candidates, who were clearly seen as winnable, lost their seats in the midterms.
According to a report in The Guardian, some initial invites for the “Special Announcement” event have been sent.
The former President’s top staffers have firmly pressed him to announce his campaign as planned, suggesting that he would look weak and wounded by the results if he holds off until the Senate runoff in December, the report said quoting sources. They have also insisted that Trump stick to the announcement.
However, other have urged Trump to hold off until the Senate runoff and then decide on how to announce his candidacy based on Georgia voter break down. The allies seeking a delay include his long time advisor Jason Miller and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, now at Fox News.
The powerful media empire of conservative billionaire Rupert Murdoch have also appeared to turn its back on Donald Trump, labeling him a “loser” who shows “increasingly poor judgement” after the midterm elections. The Wall Street Journal, the flagship of Murdoch’s News Corp, declared in an editorial that “Trump Is the Republican Party’s Biggest Loser,” pointing to the party’s disappointing performance in Tuesday’s midterms.
The cover of News Corp’s tabloid New York Post depicted Trump on a precarious wall as “Trumpty Dumpty” who “had a great fall” in the vote, blaming him for the failure of Republicans to sweep past Democratic rivals in the battle for control of Congress and governors’ mansions.
The Murdoch outlets are some of the most influential sources of information for US conservatives, unabashedly backing Republicans and attacking Democrats.
So, blaming Trump for election disappointments while lavishing praise on DeSantis could shape public views ahead of 2024.
Trump is expected to announce his candidacy next week, whereas DeSantis, who first had to win reelection to the Florida governorship, has only hinted that he might battle for the White House.
(With inputs from agencies)
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