Barring any last-minute surprises, Donald Trump is scheduled this Tuesday, November 15, to present his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, albeit not in the best of scenarios after a mid-term election in which most of his candidates have failed and the Republicans have not achieved those results they had predicted during the campaign.
Although Trump was not personally present on the ballot, virtually everyone in the United States has taken these elections as the prelude to his presidential aspirations for 2024. He has been touring several states in recent weeks not only to support his candidates, but also to test the mood among the electorate before his expected return.
However, in the face of disappointing results, especially those achieved by the candidates he supported, Trump has tried to play it down and has covered his back by stating that if they win, he should take all the credit, but if they lose, it will be others who will be responsible.
Not only has the «red wave» he had predicted not come to pass, but also most of the candidates he supported continue to lag behind in the tallies. Somewhat disappointing results for the tycoon, whose figure as de facto leader is increasingly questioned in the Republican Party.
There are many voices within the party that consider that Trump would have weighed down the aspirations of the Republicans in these legislative elections in which it seems that the Democrats will continue to have control of the Senate, but not of the House of Representatives.
From Michigan to Pennsylvania, the novice candidates backed by Trump sometimes appeared as a sort of parody of the former president, repeating the same ideology and performing the same comedy, thus mitigating the fall in popularity of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the economic crisis.
This presidential race of Trump within his party is not now a mere formality as the previous time as the figure of the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, emerges as an alternative, especially after the good results harvested in these elections.
If Trump has been the big loser of that election night, DeSantis has been the big winner. His victory by almost 20 percentage points, with amazing results in counties with a Latino majority, has served to vindicate him and reaffirm Florida as a bastion beyond the reach of the Democrats.
DeSantis is achieving something that six years ago seemed impossible, coming close to matching the prominence within the party of Donald Trump, who has avoided commenting on the results and especially on the good performance of what seems to be his rival in the primaries. It is an «interesting night,» he said.
Despite his disparaging remarks, Trump is aware that the potential of his rival calls into question his presidential career and has already threatened him that if he ran he could get «very badly hurt».
«I really think he could get hurt badly. I would tell you things about him that would not be very flattering, I know more about him than anybody, more than, maybe, his wife,» Trump told Fox News on Election Day itself, a network he later chastised for the «total support» it has been giving DeSantis, an «average Republican governor with excellent public relations.»
However, this is not the first time that the elites of the Republican Party have written the political obituary of a Trump, who has not hesitated on other occasions to sweep away all those who dared to question him. A bitter primary would delight Democrats, as Biden himself acknowledged. «It will be fun to see them face each other,» he celebrated.
