Ron DeSantis, a Republican running for governor of Florida, talks to U.S. On November 3, 2018, in Pensacola, Florida, President Donald Trump spoke at a campaign event at the Pensacola International Airport.
Threat To Hand Election
According to Ed Kilgore for New York Magazine’s “Intelligencer” on Thursday, former president Donald Trump has made it clear he is prepared to abandon the Republican Party in 2024 if they don’t nominate him as their candidate. This effectively amounts to a threat to hand the election to Democrats and burn everything down for Republicans.
In a chat with conservative radio host and writer Hugh Hewitt, Trump “refused to commit to supporting the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, saying, ‘It would depend.’ I would give you the same answer I gave in 2016 during the debates,” according to the story.
Trump often threatened to oust his followers from the Republican Party by running as an independent or third-party candidate throughout the 2016 campaign, despite having signed a “loyalty promise” before the election, according to Politico at the time.
Worrying Aspect
According to Kilgore, the worrying aspect for Republicans is that Trump wouldn’t even need to launch a full-fledged third-party presidential campaign in order to follow through on his promise.
According to the study, if Republican leaders move against Trump, like as by supporting Ron DeSantis, he would almost surely claim that he is being unjustly treated and seek to retaliate. Furthermore, he won’t necessarily need to go as far as openly announcing a third-party run (although a recent Bulwark survey revealed that 28% of Republican primary voters would support him if he ran as an independent).
Instead, Kilgore said, “Anyone who thinks Trump wouldn’t put his own pride ahead of the good of the Republican Party hasn’t been paying attention. A defeated Trump could upend the GOP’s 2024 nominee simply by forcing the candidate to choose between publicly criticizing him and alienating MAGA voters or sucking up to him in a way that would undermine any talk of a fresh start for the party.”
Trump continues to lead the field of prospective primary rivals, according to surveys, despite the fact that no significant contenders have yet to declare their candidacy. DeSantis has trailed Trump in a few previous surveys, but he comes in a distant second in the majority of them. Even so, he has been able to attract attention from prominent party funders and GOP advisers in Washington.
Other Reports, Heavy Favorite
Despite Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R) rising national popularity, the former president Trump is the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination for president in 2024, according to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll made exclusively for The Hill.
Republican respondents said that in a fictitious eight-way primary, 48 percent would support Trump while 28 percent would favor DeSantis. That’s fantastic news for Trump, but DeSantis’ support increased by 3 points since last month.
In the survey, no other potential contender was able to garner double-digit support. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who each received 7% of the vote, finished in second and third, respectively. Nikki Haley, the United States ambassador, finished fourth with barely 3% of the vote.
