Trump 2024 rivals court his donors as primary season starts

LAS VEGAS — Republicans considering a 2024 run for the White House will assemble in Las Vegas this weekend, with anxious donors and activists openly considering whether or not to support Donald Trump for a third straight time.

The former president will be among the only major Republican prospects not in attendance for the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, which organizers suggest marks the unofficial beginning of the 2024 presidential primary campaign season.

Trump will speak, but just by video conference, while leading rivals including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence will deliver keynote addresses in person.

The gathering comes just days after Trump became the first candidate to formally launch a 2024 campaign. His allies initially hoped his early announcement might ward off serious primary challenges, but that’s not likely after his loyalists lost midterm contests last week in battleground states from Arizona to Pennsylvania. His political standing within the GOP, already weakening, plummeted further.

“In my view, he’s now a loser. He’s an electoral loser,” said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another 2024 prospect attending the Las Vegas meeting. “You look at a general electorate, I don’t think there’s a Democrat he can beat because he’s now toxic to suburban voters on a personal level, and he’s earned it.”

There is still plenty of praise for the former president.

“There’s no question that what President Trump accomplished over his four years in terms of strengthening the the U.S.-Israel relationship was unparalleled. He was the most proIsrael president ever,” said Matt Brooks, the Republican Jewish Coalition’s executive director.

However, that may not be enough to win over the coalition’s leading donors this time, Brooks continued.

“For a lot of people who are attending this conference, this is about the future,” he said. “And for some of them, President Trump may be their answer. For others, they’re interested in what others have to say.”

With a sprawling fundraising operation featuring small-dollar contributions, Trump does not need major donors to reach for the GOP nomination a third time. But unwillingness by bigmoney Republicans to commit to him — at least, for now — could signal a much broader shift in a party that has been defined almost wholly by its allegiance to Trump for the past six years.

The Republican Jewish Coalition’s two-day speaking program, beginning Friday, features DeSantis, a leading Trump rival, and Pence, whom Trump blames for not overturning the 2020 election. Other speakers include former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Florida Sen. Rick Scott.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, another potential 2024 contender, canceled his appearance after a Sunday shooting at the University of Virginia that left three dead.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who could become the House speaker when Republicans take over in January, is also scheduled.

Ahead of his Friday night address, Mike Pompeo mocked one of Trump’s slogans: “We were told we’d get tired of winning. But I’m tired of losing.”