The threat of Donald Trump running for president again in 2024 has been hanging in the air since the moment it became clear that he brutally lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. (Well, at least clear to most Americans who haven’t bought into Trump’s Big Lie.) While Trump has yet to definitely announce his run, he did hold what could be described as his first campaign rally over the weekend in Arizona. However, Trump’s vaulted status as the undisputed head of the GOP is not set in stone.
While top conservative personalities like Ann Coulter have publicly turned on Trump, behind the scenes, a group of “around three dozen” former Trump officials and staffers have reportedly banded together in an effort to stop him from launching a 2024 run. Among them were former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, former national security adviser John Bolton, Anthony Scaramucci for some reason, and a smattering of former intelligence and cybersecurity officials. Via CNN:
“We’re still trying to figure out what it is” that we want to do, one participant told CNN. “Outcomes are key.” This individual said there was unanimity on the call, from those who spoke, that “this cannot just be a professional trolling operation, putting out ads like the Lincoln group.” The Lincoln Project was a group of so-called never-Trump GOP consultants who banded together to oppose the 45th President’s reelection, often running ads in the Washington, DC, area targeted to Trump.
According to former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor, the group will not be wasting its time on letters or statements. “The two operative words are ‘electoral effects,’” Taylor told CNN. “How can we have tangible electoral effects against the extremist candidates that have been endorsed by Trump?”
Of course, the easiest path to knocking Trump out of the race is simply boosting Biden’s approval numbers. Despite holding a rally in Arizona over the week, Trump is reportedly still hedging his bets on getting into the race, and his inner circle has already signaled that he won’t even bother launching a run if Biden’s approval is above 46%. Sounds like somebody knows they really did lose last time and doesn’t want it to happen again.
(Via CNN)