“Donald Trump is the head of the Republican Party still, let’s make no mistake about that. He’s still the most popular politician. And he’s going to decide what he wants to do,” former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell said on Newsmax over the weekend.
“He’s told me personally, multiple times, that he does want to run again. So we’ll see if that holds and how that comes about; I think we’ve got a long ways to go,” Grenell added.
Speculation about a Trump 2024 campaign started almost immediately after the election ended. And it included talk of a new political Party to rise above the dead weight of both ends of the political spectrum. But polls show Trump remains popular among voters who consider themselves Republicans, “which is one reason he shouldn’t try to start a new party,” Grenell argued.
“Clearly, Donald Trump is a Republican and should run again as a Republican,” he said.
The Senate plans to convene a trial in February and, if they vote to convict, they can choose to disqualify him from ever holding office again.
Some Democrats have said that’s one of the reasons they wanted to impeach. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a “60 Minutes” interview that one of the motivating factors for some in the new effort to impeach President Trump and remove him from office is to eliminate any chance he has of being elected again.
They’re also consider using the Constitution’s 14th amendment to bar him from holding office.
In his first comments since leaving office, Trump told a reporter last week that he will make a comeback in some way, but did not elaborate. On the day his successor was sworn in, Trump told supporters, “We will be back in some form.”
Jason Miller, another former Trump adviser, said earlier this month that the president would be involved in the 2022 midterms.
“President Trump is going to make sure we get the House back in 2022,” Miller said on “War Room.”
However, some Republican officials have sought to distance themselves from Trump over the Capitol breach, blaming him for what happened.
“The mob were provoked by the president and other powerful people,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor last week.
Others have acknowledged his popularity and ability to bring out voters, including new voters who had never before considered Republican candidates worth it.
“This president brought a lot of great success within, he brought people to the party that hadn’t been involved in before, and he should continue to engage in that way,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said during a recent press conference. Appearing on Fox News, he added, “I think President Trump continues to have that ability to lead this party and unite.”
