A screeching noise of sharpening knives can be heard at the doors of the offices of congressmen, advisers and senior Republican officials in office or recently more or less forcibly retired. Everyone has a picture of Donald Trump fixed in their minds. Everyone seems to have a certain thirst for compensation, to put it mildly, for the damage that the former president caused the party in Tuesday's legislative elections with his determination to support candidates who – now they realize – were too ultras.
Although it is not clear that those so resentful know and can use their weapons to bring down their powerful enemy, some are already beginning to challenge him head-on, to tell him in public to leave him or at least wait; that he does not run to proclaim his return, as he has said and confirmed that he will do on Tuesday through the fanfare announcement of his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. It will be at nine o'clock at night, he specified last night. at his house in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where the FBI entered on August 8 to recover the secret documents he had taken from the White House.
"Republicans have been following Donald Trump over the edge of a precipice," David Urban, a former adviser to the former Republican president with ties to Pennsylvania, told The New York Times: perhaps the state where Trump's gambles failed the most resoundingly, and twice: there, while television doctor Mehmet Oz lost his crucial battle for a seat in the Senate by four points against Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman (50.8% to 46.8%), the ultra Doug Mastriano, denier of the results of the 2020 presidential elections, fell by six points to the hitherto attorney general of that state, Josh Shapiro.
According to sources close to Trump's entourage at Mar-a-Lago, from where he followed the results of the midterms, the former president showed again on Wednesday the bad loss that characterizes him by distributing blame for the bad advice that had led him to support different unsuccessful candidates. The leader included his own wife, Melania, among those bad advisers. And for supporting Dr. Oz, he blamed Fox host Sean Hannity, whom he often turns to for guidance, and casino magnate Steve Wynn.
But the reactions of the former president did not stop the reflux against him due to a balance of the legislative elections that was too far from the great "tide" of conservative votes that he had predicted. Not a few party comrades made good the saying that there is no mercy for losers.
"I firmly believe that Donald Trump should no longer be the face of the Republican Party," said the former representative of the formation Peter King, until recently a follower of the still theoretical leader of the Great Old Party (GOP), as many continue to call the organization. The party should not be a platform for the "cult of personality," King added.
Among the possible GOP knife sharpeners, stands out the governor of Florida and resounding winner of his re-election in office (by 20 points ahead of Democrat Michael Crist), the ultra-conservative Ron DeSantis, who is increasingly cited as the Republican with the most possibilities to challenge Trump for the presidential candidacy in 2024. Trump called DeSantis “Sanctimonius”, that is, piss, two days before his victory.
The current Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, may also want to take revenge on the person who told him two months ago that he must have "wanted to die" and had previously called him a "dumb son of a bitch", among other things.
Republican commentator and adviser to McConnell for years, Scott Jennings, called for Trump's immediate replacement as leader and possible candidate in 2024: "The void must be filled now."
Even the New York Post, the Murdochs' conservative tabloid, buried Trump in its Wednesday and Thursday editions with covers featuring a photo of DeSantis with the caption "DeFuture" and a mocking caricature of the former president drawing him. as a clumsy and doubted his ability to lead the party. "It's time for Trump to leave the party," wrote an editorial in the newspaper.
And it is that Trump is the big loser of the legislative elections on Tuesday, an election day described by Biden as a "good day for democracy" although the GOP may be about to proclaim a narrow victory in the House of Representatives.
All in all, the former president seems willing to proclaim his candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections, without waiting at least to know the results in the Senate, pending its outcome in Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, and perhaps a second round in the latter. been on December 6. His advisers advise him to wait, but for now he does not pay attention and this Thursday he sent invitations to the act of proclamation on Tuesday at his house in Mar-a-Lago.
Trump also resorted to his network, Truth Social, to charge against the Murdoch media and attack DeSantis again, whom he once again described as a pimp and called disloyal for "playing" with a possible candidacy of his own for the 2024 elections. Hours earlier, in statements to The Wall Street Journal, he had threatened his rival unceremoniously: "If he runs, I will tell things about him that will not be very flattering," he warned.
Trump in a pure and transparent state, but now more wounded than ever.
