I will support Donald Trump 100% in the 2024 general election if he’s the GOP nominee — the question is, who will I support in the primary? According to sources familiar with the planning, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) is getting ready to announce his bid for the White House before the month’s end. His political team is in the process of transitioning to a new headquarters in Tallahassee, while a closely affiliated super PAC establishes a national campaign in Atlanta.
For months, Donald Trump has not-so-subtly warned DeSantis not to jump in the race. Despite his formidable lead in primary polls, Trump clearly knows that DeSantis is a bigger roadblock to him returning to the White House than Joe Biden. Both Trump and DeSantis have seven-point leads over Biden in the latest Washington Post general election match-up poll, and I’d be happy to see either one in the Oval Office to fix the damage that Joe Biden has done in just a few short years.
But I’m still horribly torn between the two candidates. Before CPAC 2022, my support for Trump in 2024 was unwavering. Ever since the 2020 election was decided, I eagerly awaited his comeback. It was at CPAC 2022 that I saw Ron DeSantis deliver one of the most impressive political speeches I’d ever witnessed. I knew right then and there that Ron DeSantis was destined to be president. DeSantis’s speech left a profound impression on me — it was the first moment where I realized that I wouldn’t be overly disappointed if Donald Trump chose not to run in 2024 because, if Trump chose not to run, at least we’d have DeSantis. It was a surprisingly reassuring thought.
Related: Things Are Getting Worse for Joe Biden
There’s no denying that Donald Trump was an effective conservative leader, but his time in the White House and pretty much ever since, has been, to put it kindly, chaotic. When he ran for president in 2016, he touted his ability to surround himself “only with the best and most serious people.” Instead, we got a revolving door, as Trump often made enemies out of allies, perpetually burning bridges with people he chose to bring into his administration. Trump once praised the likes of Mike Pence, Bill Barr, Jeff Sessions, James Mattis, and other people he brought onto his team, only to mercilessly attack them later.
Trump also simultaneously takes credit for Ron DeSantis’s post-congressional career while also blasting him for being “disloyal” to him for wanting to run for president. There is now a large slate of Republicans and former Trump administration officials who are regularly on television blasting him. I don’t care who you are or what excuses you can make for this, it’s a bad look — and spare me all the “establishment” talk because these are people Trump picked to serve with him.
Trump’s baggage goes far beyond his broken alliances. Since leaving office, Trump has dedicated considerable time to discussing the 2020 election, alleging fraud and irregularities. As such, Trump can’t run for president in 2024 without the 2020 election as a central issue. His recent town hall event on CNN proved this. If we’re wasting time talking about the 2020 election or the Capitol riot during the 2024 campaign, we are losing.
Don’t misunderstand me — discussions about election integrity and preventing irregularities and questionable activities from recurring in the future are essential. And the gross unfairness that rioters are experiencing at the hands of the Justice Department is shameful, but this election must be a referendum on Joe Biden and be about a vision for the future. That makes supporting Trump in the primary a harder sell.
