Trump readies for long battle
Taunts of DeSantis signals intensity only likely to rise
OXON HILL, Md. — Inside the MAGA-clad corridors of last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference, the politics of the Republican Party seemed almost unchanged from the pinnacle of Donald Trump’s presidency. Chants of “We love Trump!” rang out in the halls.
But outside the confines of the friendly gathering, Trump and his campaign have begun adjusting to the new reality of 2024: The former president may be the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, but he is no longer the singular leader of his party.
After a fitful start, the Trump operation is preparing for the possibility of a drawn-out 2024 primary. That means laying the groundwork to compete in a potential fight over delegates that could extend deep into next year. And it means shadowboxing with his notyet-official challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, over donors and endorsements.
The Trump campaign’s focus on the traditional nuts and bolts is an acknowledgment of the race’s expected competitiveness. Despite his standing as a former president and an early edge in the polls, Trump’s liabilities could turn the race into a prolonged and bitter fight.
On Saturday, when Trump was to address CPAC, the annual showcase of right-wing activists, the moment is expected to showcase his strength: the enduring loyalty of a vocal segment of the party. The speech will be just his fourth public event since his campaign began almost 16 weeks ago. But Trump is ramping up his public schedule, with planning under way for his first major 2024 rally and two policy speeches this month.
Notably, DeSantis, who is expected to run but has not declared his intentions yet, skipped CPAC, instead setting out on a multistate tour to promote his new book about his leadership in Florida as a national model.
Both men have trips planned to Davenport, Iowa, in the next two weeks.
“President Trump is still the leading candidate,” said Charlie Gerow, a Republican strategist and the vice chair of CPAC. “But it’s a much more wide-open race than it has been in the past.”
In public and in private, Trump has already begun taking swipes at DeSantis and has signaled that the intensity of those attacks is likely to rise.
DeSantis has mostly ignored the taunting, although during an appearance on Fox News, he took an oblique shot at the infighting that plagued Trump’s White House by talking about how his governorship “didn’t have a single leak.”
On Thursday evening, DeSantis addressed a donor retreat hosted by the Club for Growth, a major spender in GOP politics, in Palm Beach, just miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. The group did not invite Trump.
The shift in the political dynamics can be seen clearly in the Trump operation’s nascent delegate strategy.
Before 2020, the Trump campaign successfully played the role of the party establishment. From their perch at the White House, his aides shaped state parties’ rules to make it harder for challengers to accumulate delegates.
Heading into 2024, the Trump team’s outlook is very different. They have been canvassing state parties to hunt for opportunities to shape convention and delegate rules to Trump’s advantage.
But there are signs of his diminished influence in the party. The former president’s grassroots fundraising has dropped off considerably: In 2021, when Trump spoke at CPAC in his first major speech after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, he raised $3.2 million online in the 48 hours around the speech.
He raised roughly half as much online — $1.6 million — the day of and the day after his 2024 announcement late last year, according to federal records.
There is a lack of public support so far from some of his longest-serving aides. On a call weeks ago, Trump asked Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, his former White House press secretary, to endorse him, and she replied that she would not yet do so, according to two people briefed on the discussion, who asked not to be named.
Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson, did not address the matter directly, saying that Trump had support from “everyday Americans” and was “leading by wide margins in poll after poll.”