Author and Senior Columnist at Townhall, Kurt SchlichterAs the 2024 presidential race begins to ramp up, the GOP is standing firm in its belief that the field will ultimately come down to the country’s two biggest Republicans — former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“It’s a fight between Trump and DeSantis,” Schlichter said in a recent interview The Political InsiderBrett Smith. Schlichter cited his recent column criticizing the former president, but acknowledged his huge potential to still control the field as more potential candidates eventually jump.
“It’s very difficult for Trump, because Trump is screwed up, he is at this point,” Schlichter continued. “And DeSantis is killing it, and that’s just the way it is.”
“Where’s the room? Asa Hutchinson? Asa-frenzy? Pompeo-frenzy? Who wants Nikki Haley? If you want Jeb in a skirt, show Jeb in a skirt, you know? I mean, I don’t know who else there is. Tom Cotton was too smart to count himself out, it was. He knew the loser. Look, it’s Trump or DeSantis, those are the two sides of the modern Republican Party.
RELATED: Has Trump threatened a third-party run to split the GOP?
Prediction: Trump won’t run third party
In late December, Trump posted an article to his Truth Social platform suggesting a “coming split” in the GOP, adding fuel to the theory that he is considering or has previously considered abandoning his fight for the Republican nomination in 2024 and instead running as an independent candidate or forming his own third party.
An article by columnist Dan Gelernter in American Greatness argued that the GOP establishment has moved on from the tumultuous days of the Trump years and that they have since proven that “we have no intention of electing Trump again.” They will go together when they run for the nomination in 2016 or rule the White House until they lose in 2020.
“What do we do when the majority of Republicans want Trump, but the Republican Party says we can’t have him?” asked Gelernter. While this poses a very legitimate question, Kurt Schlichter still believes that Trump will not give up the fight for the GOP nomination so easily.
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“What will Trump do next, if and when his Term 2.0 dream is dashed again?” Schlichter asks. “Well, he doesn’t run a third party—he could arguably do worse.”
“Why doesn’t he run a third party? Because third-party runs are for losers, he understands that, and Trump’s main objective is to ease the pain of a 2020 defeat. Trump no doubt remembers his 2000 Reform Party run, a vaguely humiliating exercise that lasted just a few months.
Perhaps Schlichter brings up the biggest reason Trump shouldn’t think about running for the White House without the GOP’s support: money.
“It’s a major funding issue,” he continues. “The Democrats’ humiliating release of taxes — which I think will become a permanent suppository for norm-busting, and if the House GOP has the stones to add to it — showed that Trump doesn’t have a ton of loose cash. The famously parsimonious businessman is in the market to fund an effective primary, more or less ordinary, campaign. Assets are never liquidated.
“Yes, he has a war chest, but it will disappear quickly, and it’s unclear whether he can replenish it with small-money donors as big-money donors fly south for the winter — and who they’ll see as the winner.”
Who has your money?@BrettRSmith76 @KurtSchlichter @TPInsidr https://t.co/yvCT34D9oX
— Remso W. Martinez (@HeyRemso) January 19, 2023
RELATED: Democrats Go Too Far To Promote Trump’s Tax Returns
Who will Trump face?
As of now, Trump is the only declared candidate for the GOP seeking the 2024 nomination. Mogul and rapper Kanye West announced in the fall that he would run as an independent, but amid recent scandals over anti-Semitic remarks and outright praise of Adolf Hitler, West’s presidential ambitions seem to have evaporated.
Aaron Blake, a staff writer for The Washington Post, has compiled a ranking list of his party’s most likely candidates if they enter the race.
Blake’s List ranks as follows:
- Governor Ron DeSantis
- Former President Donald Trump
- its Tim Scott
- Former Vice President Mike Pence
- Governor Glenn Youngkin
- Sen. Ted Cruz
- Former Secretary Mike Pompeo
- Former Ambassador Nikki Haley
- Govt. Chris Sununu
- Govt Christy nom
Who do you think will be the eventual GOP nominee to face off against Joe Biden?
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