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Was Donald Trump’s Arizona rally the “soft-launch” for his 2024 campaign? The Atlantic and other far-left publications certainly think so, and they might be right. Trump has not formally announced that he will be running again, but that hasn’t stopped him from teasing his likely rematch with Joe Biden repeatedly in the year since he’s left office. The Arizona rally sounded like a test run for the strategies Trump intends to use for the 2024 race.
Trump returns to Arizona
In some ways Trump has been running his 2024 race from the moment he left the White House. Unlike most former presidents, Trump has thrown himself back into party politics and continued to dominate headlines.
There has been speculation that Trump may choose to act as a GOP kingmaker rather than running again himself, in which case Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would be the likely nominee.
DeSantis might be the stronger candidate in a general election, but in the primaries there is no doubt that Trump would win an easy victory and secure the nomination.
Polls have consistently shown that if Trump wants to be the Republican nominee he will only have to say the word, unless something drastically changes in the next two years.
The former president has to strike a delicate balance for now; if he openly admits that he is running again, his campaign will already be old news by the time the campaign season really begins.
On the other hand, without a social media presence, Trump has to ensure that the mainstream media is forced to keep talking about him and watching closely for 2024 hints.
A 2020 rematch?
The Arizona rally was practically a campaign appearance, though Trump likely has no intention of formally announcing his candidacy in the immediate future.
The state was one of the closest in the 2020 election and has been at the center of the national feud over voter fraud allegations and Trump’s claim that the White House was stolen from him.
Interestingly, President Biden has also been telling the country that future elections might be stolen, making it possible that a 2024 rematch would see both candidates rejecting the legitimacy of a loss.
Trump told the crowd in Arizona that he ran twice and won twice, stopping just short of saying that he will try for a third run. 2022 will be a crucial year for deciding the fate of that run.
The former president has devoted much of his energy to helping key allies win races in the midterm elections; Biden and Trump are not running this year, but they will be on everyone’s mind when election day arrives.
It seems almost certain that Trump has made up his mind to run, but an official announcement may be some time away, and much can still happen before 2024.
