As his court battles to overturn the election continue to fizzle, President Donald Trump has been grabbing for straws. He is desperately considering ways to intervene in the incoming Biden administration as reality sets in. His latest efforts according to a report from the Daily Beast on Saturday include more detailed discussions about a possible second run against President-elect Joe Biden including a potential 2024 campaign launch and an Inauguration Day event.
As the President’s efforts to chip away at democracy dwindle in court, three people familiar with the conversations about a future bid, told the Daily Beast that the one-term President is holding onto hope with a possible 2024 campaign launch.
The discussions suggest that President Trump — who on Thursday said that he would “certainly” leave the White House as longshot court battles fall flat — is beginning to pivot in his strategy to hold public attention and relevance amid his electoral defeat.
Even as Trump has continued to make false claims of widespread fraud in public, the private conversations described by the Daily Beast suggest that Trump has delved as far as even trying to pin down the ideal timing of such an announcement to disrupt his successor’s transition. According to the Daily Beast, an event toward a Trump 2024 bid that takes place during Biden’s inauguration week in January has been floated, possibly on Inauguration Day.
According to the publication, President Trump and some of his close allies are also looking into prominent donors to identify potential supporters for a future bid.
The reporting of a potential campaign launch, comes after Bloomberg reported on Thursday that during an Oval Office meeting earlier this month that involved National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, Vice President Mike Pence, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump said he planned on running in 2024, if his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were unsuccessful.
“If you do that—and I think I speak for everybody in the room—we’re with you 100 percent,” O’Brien said, according to the Bloomberg report.
