OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
It’s going to be a crazy few years in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. That’s if there’s a country left when Biden is done with it.
As he approaches the halfway point of his presidency, the failed president has little chance of gaining mass support for reelection. Only 18 percent of respondents believe Biden should run again, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov survey released last week.
That’s a seven-point decrease from the number who said he should run in May. Yahoo said that this is “the lowest number to date.”
Only 35 percent of Democrats think Biden should run for reelection – a drop of eight points since May. The number of Republicans and independents who believe Biden should run again is only nine percent and 12 percent, respectively.
A report out last week said that Donald Trump may announce his intention to run again as soon as September, although many leaders in the GOP are urging him not to announce before the midterms. It’s believed he will become the topic and give Democrats ammunition against Republicans who are predicted to take back the House in a major fashion.
Now, there’s a possibility that one of Trump’s cabinet secretaries will face the president he served under at a primary debate.
“Mike Pompeo, who was secretary of state in the administration of President Donald Trump, revealed he’s considering a 2024 presidential campaign during a visit to the United Kingdom this month,” according to the Western Journal.
“Oh, goodness, we’ll make that decision after November, sometime this year,” Pompeo told The Times of London during a trip that also included a Q-and-A with the Policy Exchange think tank on July 4.
“I say ‘we,’ Susan and me, we’ll make this decision wholly independent of who else decides to get in the race or who doesn’t,” he said, referring to his wife.
Pompeo’s remarks suggested a willingness to run for president even if Trump announces a comeback bid for the White House, as many expect.
“And if we conclude it’s the right place for us to be and we think that this is the right time for us to go serve, we’ll go at it and we’ll go make the case as best we can,” he said.
In an expression of respect for the earliest state primaries, the former secretary of state said “Then we’ll see what the good people of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina think.”
Pompeo was in Iowa last year.
“Pompeo tried to walk the line when speaking about the 2020 election, endorsing Trump’s legal fight against alleged voter fraud while also speaking positively of Vice President Mike Pence’s refusal to reject the Electoral College slate,” the Journal continued.
“It was appropriate to litigate it as the president did,” Pompeo told reporters at the Times. “The vice president then ultimately made the right decision to certify the election.”
In April 2018, Pompeo, a West Point alumnus who graduated first in his class in 1986, was appointed secretary of state by Trump.
Prior to that, he represented Kansas in Congress as a Republican.
As soon as Pompeo left the State Department, some observers noticed that he had lost a great deal of weight.
Huge shoutout to @mikepompeo for all the weight loss in the last year. Awesome to see people getting healthy 💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/nyOEDse5gV
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) January 4, 2022
“2024 GOP primary polling consistently shows Trump with a considerable lead over his competition,” the Journal added.
Pompeo has been included in some early primary polling, but his support pales in comparison with some other Trump alternatives, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Some polls even show Trump with an outright majority of support, which would all but guarantee the former president the nomination.
It appears that Trump supporters are skeptical of Pompeo’s chances if he runs for president against his former boss. As Trump Jr. said about the former secretary of state, he is “a smart enough guy to probably know he shouldn’t or wouldn’t run against Donald Trump.”
Junior was asked if Mike Pompeo strongly opposing Trump in the PA Senate race is a sign he will run against him in 2024: “He’s a smart enough guy to probably know he shouldn’t or wouldn’t run against Donald Trump.”
(I did not speed this up) pic.twitter.com/WUvsmXoyHS— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) May 13, 2022
In an exclusive interview with Olvia Nuzzi of New Yorker Magazine, Trump said about running, “Well, in my own mind, I’ve already made that decision, so nothing factors in anymore. In my own mind, I’ve already made that decision.”
He also said “Look, I feel very confident that, if I decide to run, I’ll win.”
The Washington Post is claiming that sources say Trump will announce his run in September.
According to MIC Magazine “several unnamed “Trump Advisors” who spoke with the Washington Post this week, the former president is looking to announce his next campaign for the White House in September, just in time to play a major — if unpredictable — role in the upcoming midterms some two months later. While nothing is set in stone, one advisor put it at “70-30 he announces” before November, while another noted that “you can only hold him off so long. One day he’ll wake up and say, ‘Put it out.’”
Some Republicans, however, worry that by launching his bid for the presidency in September, Trump could play accidental spoiler for his own party’s odds at retaking one, or both chambers of congress, as they’re widely expected to do.
Source: The Republic Brief