Earlier this week, from his home at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump made his big announcement, that he’s running for President…again.
Yes, the twice-impeached former President is making his third run for the White House in 2024. His announcement is early and made after a disappointing midterm cycle for the Republican Party, which upset plenty of Republican leaders.
In today’s article, we’ll discuss the night of this announcement, why he did it, and speculate on his chances of winning the Republican nomination for the nation’s highest office.
So, let’s jump right in!
Donald Trump’s Big Announcement
On Tuesday night, Donald Trump strolled out to a room full of supporters, staffers, and the media to make his announcement known to the world, that he would be seeking the Republican nomination for President in 2024.
Saying, “In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”
When I saw the speech, I was surprised by how subdued it was, I found myself wondering if the guy was sick. It seemed low-energy and unlike his usual brash self. I wasn’t the only one that thought so.
If you didn’t see the speech, it’s likely because very few news outlets covered it. The major broadcast networks, like ABC, NBC, and CBS didn’t show the speech and on the cable side of things outlets like CNN only showed roughly twenty minutes or so before cutting away for political roundtables and analysis. Even Fox News cut away!
However, it’s not surprising, it’s a difficult balancing act with covering Trump news, of any kind, right now. How much coverage should he get? He incited an insurrection after all. And yet, here I am, writing this article. It’s going to be a very interesting couple of years until 2024.
Why did Trump announce his candidacy so early?
Candidates start flirting with the idea of a run for President long before the general election. Some would even argue that candidates never stop campaigning.
They form alliances and seek donors (people who will give money to their campaign) before they ever say that they’re running.
However, typically the candidates that know they’re running won’t announce until roughly the spring before the election. About a year and a half or so before election day.
So why did Trump announce his run so early? Fear and his hopes for “shock and awe” would be my guess.
Trump’s many legal woes
I won’t break down all of Trump’s legal issues in this article but I hope to eventually. However, CNN recently gave a succinct recap that you can read here.
Notably, the legal issues that are the most glaring are his recent mishandling of classified documents that were seized at his home at Mar-a-Lago by the FBI.
These documents allegedly contained classified information and may have had sensitive information about China and Iran and more.
Aside from that, there are continued investigations into the January 6 attack on the capitol and his attempts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election.
Trump hopes to avoid indictment
It’s my, and many others’ belief, that Trump announced his intention to seek the Republican ticket so early because he hopes that this will shield him from the many legal issues that he and his family are currently facing. He’s said so himself, according to sources.
The idea is that it would look bad, for lack of a better way to put it, for the Justice Department or others to investigate, prosecute, and potentially arrest a person seeking office. Especially a high-profile one like the President of the United States.
It could give the impression of a “witch hunt” and show favor to one party or organization over another and given what happened at the capitol, it isn’t far-fetched to think that his followers wouldn’t view it as exactly that.
A good example of that would be when the former director of the FBI, James Comey, made an announcement on Hillary Clinton’s emails days before the 2016 Presidential election.
Some believe that that action caused Hillary Clinton to lose the election. Mrs. Clinton said as much herself.
I’m not here to argue whether or not that is the reason she lost, I’m simply pointing out the fallout from that action as an example for you.
However, it’s hard to argue that Trump’s recent actions aren’t worse by comparison and hopefully the DOJ won’t be as careless as they move forward in these investigations but time will tell.
Shock and Awe
The other prevailing thought for his early announcement is that by doing so, he might “scare off” other Republican rivals. However, that’s proving to be a miscalculation already.
Several other Republicans have spoken openly about a possible run, like Nikki Haley and Asa Hutchinson, and of course, there’s plenty of talk about Governors Ron Desantis of Florida and Glenn Younkin of Virginia but neither of them has publicly said that they’re seeking the nation’s highest office.
So, it doesn’t look like his announcement has other Republicans shaking in their boots. If anything, it seems to have motivated others to throw their hats in the ring or rather, at least make their intentions known. We’ll see what happens in a few months.
Can Trump win the Republican nomination?
I’ll cut right to the chase, in my opinion, yes, he could win the nomination. Will he? I have no clue but Trump’s been written off plenty of times before and while the “red wave” didn’t materialize the way that so many thought it would, a few Trump-backed candidates won their seats in this last midterm and others had close elections.
To close for comfort if you ask me.
It’s possible that while other candidates eventually do run and there’s this big primary competition, Trump could still rise to the top.
Why do I say that you ask? Because he’s a polarizing man, he’s caused deep divisions in this nation.
So much so, that there’s a silent majority who won’t talk to pollsters, they won’t talk about their support on CNN or Fox News but they’ll sure as heck show up and vote on election day.
The key takeaways
The key takeaways are this, Trump’s made it official, he is going to run for President of the United States for the third time. He’s seeking the Republican nomination to do so.
Despite whatever he thought, it will not stop the DOJ and others from investigating him and potentially charging him and it won’t scare off other Republicans from talking about and eventually making their announcements to run.
Furthermore, even if he’s indicted, he could still run, win and serve as President. The only way a legal action could stop his run is if he’s found guilty of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.
So, if you’re like me and you never want to see this man near the White House again, the answer is simple. Vote.
We have to mobilize supporters and voters and make sure we vote when that November day comes in 2024.
Until then, buckle up. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride!
Sources:
Featured Image: Donald Trump speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Picture by: Gage Skidmore. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Picture of Republican Party Mascot: Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash