By announcing early, Trump thought he would clear the 2024 Republican presidential field and avoid being indicted, but the decision has backfired on him.
The early announcement — which advisers said was planned in part to clear the field of potential rivals and help Trump get ahead of a potential indictment — appears to have failed or backfired on both fronts. Rather than declining to run against Trump, a crowd of other Republicans have become more vocal about their possible moves to challenge him for the nomination.
And Trump’s formal declaration of his candidacy prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to oversee the federal criminal probes circling the former president into his campaign’s efforts to submit phony electors in 2020 and into the mishandling of sensitive government secrets at Mar-a-Lago.
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Trump hasn’t held any rallies since the announcement. He appears to have no campaign team or platform to run on. Trump announced because he incorrectly thought that by becoming a 2024 candidate, he could avoid being indicted by the Department of Justice, but there is no policy about not indicting candidates.
Attorney General Garland appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith as a direct response to Trump’s candidacy. Donald Trump might have made the situation worse by announcing his candidacy early.
Instead of freezing the Republican presidential field, Trump showed his weakness by getting in early and allowing the rest of the field to sit back and wait for Trump to either faceplant or be indicted.
The whole Trump strategy turned out to be wrong and may speed up the process of an indictment and strengthen the opposition to his candidacy.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
