(Washington) Nearly 100 days after Joe Biden began his term as president of the United States, his predecessor Donald Trump remains a powerful figure in the Republican Party and a potential major player in the 2024 presidential election.
The Republican billionaire recently settled in Mar-a-Lago, his stately Florida residence, in a constant flurry of press releases to give his opinion on topics such as immigration, or the political life of his party.
On Monday, he used this tactic to attack Republicans who did not support his false accusations that the 2020 presidential election had been “rigged.”
The real estate mogul offers his support to conservative candidates, including those who challenge elected officials in the Republican establishment, and turns his base by criticizing Biden and the Democrats, “the radical left,” he said.
Donald Trump, who is permanently banned from Twitter, reappeared last week on conservative Fox News, in an interview in which he complained that he had been indicted in front of Congress, while he had “done nothing bad.”
Since the billionaire left office, Republicans have flocked to Mar-a-Lago for his advice or support.
Returning to civilian life, the former commander in chief now faces a host of legal concerns, including investigations into his finances and possible charges of tax evasion and bank fraud.
However, Donald Trump is showing no sign of wanting to step out of the spotlight.
At the end of February, the Septuagint made a triumphant return to CPAC, the conservative annual convention, where it hinted that it still represented the future of the Republican Party.
After losing the presidency and the Senate, and failing to restore the House of Representatives, Donald Trump left the White House with 34% approval, the lowest in his term, and left a Republican party in a distinctly weaker position.
But it is still a force that some Republicans shrug off for their own responsibility.
Does it represent one faction of the Republican Party or is it a dominant force? “In an interview with AFP, he asks Eileen Camark, a researcher at the Brookings Institution working on the US presidency.
Along with other experts, she is carefully watching some of the primaries battles as Trump’s influence could be challenged, in the lead up to a possible new presidential campaign of 2024.
“If he loses the primaries, the politicians watching these things will think it probably isn’t that scary,” says Eileen Kamark.
“And if he wins it, then he will be a force that must be taken into account,” she added.
Internal conflict
Opposition within the Republican Party is intense, and after the attack on the Capitol Building in Washington on January 6 by the billionaire’s supporters, some Republican figures want the party to openly distance themselves from Trump and Trump.
Thus, elected to the House of Representatives, Liz Cheney, warned her colleagues not to reject the idea of a cult of personality, especially after the events of January 6. In response, Donald Trump indicated that he would support any conservative candidate who rose in 2022 against the re-election of this elected member in Wyoming.
But as some Republican officials try to dampen the extremist voices within the party, they continue to rise.
On Saturday, the elected Mrs. Marjorie Taylor Green delivered a speech at the “America First” meeting, where she claimed support for the former president and his false accusations of election fraud.
Marjorie Taylor Green is one of the most prominent voices in Trumpism, and with some of Donald Trump’s followers, she is struggling to see the billionaire represent the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election, or if not him, one of his followers, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, or the senator from the state Missouri Josh Hawley.
According to Ellen Camark, the Republicans find themselves in an internal struggle between “pro-Trump and anti-Trump”, while many within the party “hide and hope that they will not be classified by one side or the other.”
“We will know better in 2022 how strong (Donald Trump) really is,” concludes the researcher.
