Washington
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump’s top aides have discussed the third week of November as an ideal starting point for his 2024 presidential campaign if Republicans do well in next week’s midterm elections, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Trump’s team has discussed Nov. 14 as a possible announcement date in the middle of President Joe Biden’s long-planned overseas trip to Asia, two sources said. Trump is unlikely to make an announcement until Monday, even if he exceeds expectations on GOP election night, so as not to overshadow his daughter Tiffany’s Nov. 12 wedding at Mar-a-Lago and avoid sharing the news cycle with the midterm results. sources said.
Those sources also cautioned that no date has been set and that Trump could push back if control of the Senate remains unresolved after Election Day or if Republicans see big gains in House races. As debate rages over where Trump should begin his next bid for the White House, a person familiar with the matter said his team has not yet decided on a location and is still toying with the announcement near his home in Palm Beach, Florida. he has conducted his political operations since leaving Washington, D.C., or in Rust Belt battlegrounds such as Ohio or Pennsylvania.
In a statement to CNN, Trump’s press secretary, Taylor Budovitch, declined to comment on the “endless speculation and rumors.”
The former president has long eyed the post-Thanksgiving midterms as a window of opportunity to launch his next political act. As CNN previously reported, Trump expects the GOP to make significant gains on Election Night and, if his prediction comes true, will want to capitalize on Tuesday’s momentum, especially if his Senate candidates win key contests in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona. Ohio and Georgia. Trump has also said he is interested in announcing his potential 2024 challengers by the end of the year. One of them, former Vice President Mike Pence, is due to release a book about his time in office on November 15 and said recently that “there may be someone else I like more” as the next Republican presidential candidate. he intends to challenge his former boss.
At a rally in Iowa on Thursday, Trump told the audience to “get ready” to return to the presidential campaign trail, hinting that he would “very, very, very, probably do it again” as he bid for the White House. It was his latest attempt to warn Republicans before Election Day without publicly announcing a third campaign, something that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other leading Republicans had previously urged Trump to refrain from doing.
“I give him a ton of credit for not announcing this year [and] for not stepping in the way of mid-term candidates. I’m glad he didn’t. That was certainly my advice from the beginning, former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told reporters at an event Thursday morning.
News of Trump’s potential Nov. 14 announcement was first reported by Axios.
Trump’s announcement later this month comes as he continues to pursue several high-profile investigations that could escalate after Election Day, when the Justice Department ends its traditional quiet period leading up to Election Day and begins announcing indictments of Trump associates. Participated in efforts to cancel the 2020 elections. The former president remains under investigation for bringing classified government documents to Mar-a-Lago late in his presidency and was recently subpoenaed by a congressional select committee for his testimony and documents related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Meanwhile, Trump also faces an ongoing investigation by Fulton County prosecutors into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Justice Department officials have discussed whether Trump’s nomination would create the need for a special counsel to oversee two wide-ranging federal investigations into the former president, CNN reported.
