Status: 02.01.2023 06:33
Ex-President Trump has announced that he intends to take office again. But his party could also nominate competitor DeSantis as the top candidate for the 2024 election – or someone else entirely.
Donald Trump hasn’t had celebrations like November 15 for a long time. On that day, Trump announced his renewed candidacy for the presidency in his private home Mar-a-Lago. Since the midterms, the midterm elections at the beginning of November, things have been going downhill for Trump step by step.
Many of the candidates he favored had lost in the midterm elections. Prominent financiers turned their backs on Trump. The many legal battles he is involved in culminated in the recommendation by the Capitol Storming Committee of Inquiry that Trump be indicted.
“Like a burning up asteroid”?
Francis Rooney, former Florida Republican congressman from Florida, described Trump’s condition on radio station NPR: “I think he’s like a burning asteroid. Its shine is fading. It’s time for a new party leadership, for new people. We don’t have to anymore carry the burden of Trump’s past with us.”
For most Trump critics, Ron DeSantis is the favorite for the Republican presidential nomination. The 44-year-old, re-elected governor of Florida by a wide margin, has not yet officially declared his candidacy. DeSantis said there was still work to be done and that he had only just started fighting.
DeSantis similar far right as Trump
In terms of content, DeSantis is as far to the right as Trump. Political scientist Michael Binder says on NPR that DeSantis wants the same policies as Trump, “just without his crazy comments and personal attacks.”
However, the political scientist qualifies: DeSantis has not yet proven itself on the national stage. “He hasn’t been particularly good at TV debates,” says Binder. And he doesn’t exactly thrive in a stadium with 20,000 people.”
Ron DeSantis – here on November 19, 2022 at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas – is considered the favorite among most Trump-critical Republicans.
Image: Getty Images via AFP
Possible third parties: Pence, Haley, Hutchinson
There are also conceivable third parties who could enter the Republican candidate race. Former Vice President Mike Pence, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson.
John Kasich, ex-governor of Ohio, said on CNN about the Republican primaries: “Ironically, the larger the field of candidates, the greater the chance for Trump to win the race in the end. “
Warning to write Trump off
Other voices also warn against writing off Trump. He still has a hard core of supporters at the party base, he still has a large network, and a lot of money anyway. In 2016, too, Trump seemed to have no chance at the beginning of the primaries, in the end he beat everyone else out of the field.
DeSantis is undoubtedly the rising star among Republicans. But Trump remains the unpredictable, glaring will-o’-the-wisp of US politics.
USA: Trump, DeSantis or a third party?
Ralf Borchard, ARD Washington, December 28, 2022 5:05 p.m