Trump eyes a 3rd White House run
DeSantis fires back at former president’s criticism as ‘noise’
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump prepared to launch his third campaign for the White House, looking to move on from disappointing midterm defeats and defy history amid signs that his grip on the Republican Party is waning.
Trump had hoped to use the GOP’s expected gains in last week’s elections as a springboard to vault himself to his party’s nomination.
Instead, he finds himself being blamed for backing a series of losing candidates after Republicans failed to take control of the Senate.
While the party was on the cusp of retaking control of the House on Tuesday, it could end up with its narrowest majority in decades.
“Hopefully, tomorrow will turn out to be one of the most important days in the history of our Country!” Trump wrote on his social media network Monday.
An announcement was expected Tuesday night from his club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Another campaign is a remarkable turn for any former president, much less one who made history as the first to be impeached twice and whose term ended with his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol in a deadly bid to halt the peaceful transition of power on Jan. 6, 2021.
Just one president in U.S. history has been elected to two nonconsecutive terms: Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892.
Trump is also facing a
series of criminal investigations, including a Justice Department probe into the hundreds of documents with classified markings that were discovered in boxes and drawers at his Mar-a-Lago club.
Aides and allies had urged Trump to wait until after the midterms were over — and then until after a Dec. 6 Senate runoff election in Georgia — to announce his plans.
But Trump, eager to return to the spotlight, is also hoping to stave off a long list of potential challengers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who cruised to
reelection last week and is now being urged by many in his party to run for president as well.
Trump has already begun to lash out at DeSantis publicly and on Tuesday, the Florida governor responded, dismissing the criticism as “noise.”
“At the end of the day, I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night,” DeSantis told reporters.
Trump has tried to blame Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell for the GOP’s performance — and McConnell allies have criticized Rick Scott, the Florida
senator who heads the Senate Republicans’ campaign committee.
However, Trump has received the brunt of criticism for elevating candidates in states like Pennsylvania and Arizona who were unappealing to general election voters because they embraced his lies about the 2020 election or held hard-line views on issues like abortion that were out of step with the mainstream.
While Trump has the backing of the No. 3 House Republican, Rep. Elise Stefanik, others were already moving on.
Asked whether she would endorse Trump in 2024, Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming told reporters Monday: “I don’t think that’s the right question. I think the question is, who is the current leader of the Republican Party?”
Her answer to that question: “Ron DeSantis.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, a longtime Trump critic, compared Trump to a pitcher who keeps losing after GOP disappointments in 2018, 2020 and now 2022.
“He’s been on the mound and lost three straight games. If we want to start winning, we need someone else on the mound,” Romney said.
Others expressed concern that Trump’s announcement would be a distraction from the Georgia runoff between Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and Republican candidate Herschel Walker.
“What’s really important for anybody who wants to be a 2024 candidate is to help us right now in 2022 to finish the cycle by winning the state of Georgia,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said.
Even the former president’s right-flank allies in the House Freedom Caucus kept their distance ahead of Trump’s announcement.
“I am focused on what’s happening here,” said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., the Freedom Caucus chairman. “I’m just not paying attention to any of those things, so I don’t want to comment on that.”
Meanwhile, in Utah, 86 Republican lawmakers on Monday sent out a news release urging DeSantis to run, reflecting dissatisfaction with having Trump as their party’s standard-bearer.
The state’s Mormon majority has long been skeptical of Trump’s isolationism and foul language.
Rep. Liz Cheney, a Trump critic who is considering her own presidential run in 2024, highlighted losses by Trump-backed candidates while speaking Tuesday morning at The Washington Post’s Global Women’s Summit.
“This is certainly not the rollout I’m sure Donald Trump wanted for his announcement tonight. But it’s also not the first time he’s been totally detached from reality,” Cheney said. “There’s no question he’s unfit for office. And I feel confident he will never be president again.”