Former President Trump recently took to the stage and declared he would beat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a potential Republican primary match-up for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
Based on current poll findings, he’s almost certainly right in his declaration.
“If I faced him, I’d beat him like I would beat everyone else,” Trump said of DeSantis confidently earlier this week. “I don’t think I will face him. … I think most people would drop out. I think he would drop out.”
A Trump 2024 run — which looks increasingly likely — would look a lot like 2016 from a media perspective. The former real estate mogul and star of the reality TV show “The Apprentice” would blot out the sun and dominate the media coverage.
Most of that said coverage would be profoundly negative, of course, with the usual comparisons of Trump to Hitler and enough file footage of the horrible Jan. 6 Capitol riot to fill an entire decade.
With such a backdrop, the immediate questions are most likely as follows:
Would DeSantis still run if Trump were to announce his intention to take back the White House? He probably would not and quietly drop out of the race.
Does Trump really want to be president while in his 80s? Probably so, there is no reason for him to not want to run again.
Against whom would Trump or DeSantis (or both, on a combined ticket) run if President Biden chose not to run again or was asked by his handlers not to run again? It’s impossible to predict at this time.
Despite Trump’s dominance in the media and extremely loyal followers, one could make the argument that DeSantis would have a better chance in a general election to beat President Biden, Vice President Harris or any other Democratic nominee. The governor, of course, would need the full blessing of Trump if the former president decided to sit this one out, complete with rallies on his behalf.
On all current issues, the Biden administration is continually showing their lack of being able to pick up the slack and failing badly, in the eyes of American citizens.
Thus a recent poll shows, Biden polling at 39 percent approval on the economy, 37 percent approval on taxes, 23 percent approval on border security and 28 percent approval on Afghanistan.
Overall, just 32 percent of independents support the president, with his overall approval clocking in at 38 percent. But if Trump runs, the focus would be largely taken off Biden’s dismal record.
Biden’s handlers wisely would attempt to turn such a 2024 contest into a rerun of the 2020 race, making the choice a referendum on Trump instead of Biden, who arguably has had the worst first nine months in office imaginable.
It’s difficult to see how Biden turns those numbers upside down if he is the nominee. And if Harris is activated in the running instead, the numbers likely would look worse, considering that she’s polling lower than Biden in almost every sampling. Throw in her awful 2020 campaign for the party nomination, which ended in 2019 before one vote was cast, and it’s looking gloomy for the Blue Team in 2024.
However, with all this talk about Trump, some say it would be best for the Florida Governor to be nominated. It would be an easier path and fresh start for Republicans without drudging up the past.
A governor such as DeSantis, who would make his case by drawing a contrast between himself and Joe Biden rather than by drawing unflattering attention to himself, would have higher chances of winning against the Democratic Party.
