Donald Trump promises to return

45th U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that he will seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. There is an ongoing investigation into Trump’s actions during the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a crowd of his supporters, as well as into his keeping secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after Trump had already left office.

Undoubtedly, Trump is counting on an easy run for the Republican Party nomination because of the support of his “nuclear electorate.” On the other hand, the recent midterm elections demonstrated that Trump already has a clear opponent: Florida Governor Ron Desantis, who won his re-election in the state by a wide margin and with significant support from independent voters. Some Republican leaders, experts say, are not thrilled about a possible Trump comeback and will promote alternative candidates, including Florida Governor Desantis, who is clearly laying the groundwork for a possible nomination of his own.

Howard Schweber, a professor of American politics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: “What was striking about Trump’s statement was his weakness. In two different ways. First, the show itself wasn’t like the usual Trump. It was some kind of incoherent Trump, absent-minded and sounding like he wasn’t sure why he was doing it. In the past when he ran for president, particularly in 2016, his speeches have always featured fiery rhetoric and strong messages, this time there was none of that. The second striking thing is that Republican candidates often rely on the support of the Republican media, in which Murdoch’s empire plays a huge role. Rupert Murdoch’s reaction to Trump’s statement can be seen in his New York Post this morning, which has strongly advocated for Trump in the past. This time, Trump’s statement only made it to the banner at the bottom of the front page, which said something like “the man from Florida made the announcement, see pg. 12,” which is a conspicuous gesture of disrespect to Trump. This suggests that Murdoch and Murdoch’s people believe that Trump is very, very weak in the Republican Party, and their perception tends to spread to the masses. Both in terms of Trump’s statement itself and the reaction to it, I think his position is weak. I expect there will be a conflict within the party between Trump and Desantis. But at this point, it certainly looks like the governor of Florida is in a stronger position. I don’t think there’s any chance of them uniting.”

“Donald Trump has been getting a lot of negative press lately, including from Republicans, but that’s exactly what happened in 2015. People forget that in 2015 the vast majority of the Republican Party hated him and hated him openly. But it didn’t matter. Ever since the ’80s, Trump has operated on the principle that any press is good. Trump’s “nuclear electorate” feeds on criticism and negativity. If Elon Musk allows him to return to Twitter, and we can assume he will, I think Donald Trump will be right back in the race. “Trump’s ‘nuclear electorate’ supported him in 2015 because the Republican establishment was against Trump, and the fact that the new Republican establishment is now rebelling against Trump I think will have the same effect as it did in 2015. I would be very surprised if Trump and Desantis were on the same ballot, I think Trump only wants someone he can easily control to be elected vice president with him. I think that’s why he chose Mike Pence. And Mike Pence was easy to control up until Jan. 6,” added Jeremy Geddert, chair of the political science department at Assumption University in Massachusetts.