Nasville, Tenn. –
As religious conservatives gathered at a large resort near the Grand Ole Opry House this week, Nikki Haley urged the “majority way” crowd of the Alliance of Faith and Freedom to look to the future.
President Donald Trump was the ambassador to the United Nations, and former South Carolina Governor Haley said, “The rebirth of patriotism is in our hands.” “And with you, and with faith in God, I promise to answer that call and inspire our country once again,” he sounded like a White House candidate.
Such remarks are common to a party out of power and in search of another leader. What is unusual is that the last leader of the party is planning his own return.
Trump spoke from the same platform on Friday after a House committee investigating the January 6 uprising began to reveal its desperate efforts to stay in power. It provided tragic video footage and testimonies, including accounts of close associates of Trump and his family members.
He blasted the committee’s efforts as politically motivated, emphasizing that he had done nothing wrong.
In the face of the video and the collaborators’ account, he further said, “What you are seeing is a complete and utter lie. It is a complete and utter fraud.” He asserted that his confession had been obtained through torture and that his confession had been obtained through torture.
And he decided to provoke his own plans.
“One of the most important tasks facing the next Republican president – I wonder who he will be,” Trump said at one point, standing up for the lockout and “United States!”
“Do I want to run for president?” He asked the crowd, cheering more.
Trump’s return to public talks comes at a time when he was actively weighing in when he could formally launch a third presidential race, according to people familiar with the discussion. The debate is set between announcing the campaign in the coming months or, as is customary, waiting until after the mid-November elections, according to aides and aides who claim he has yet to make a final decision.
Trump has spent the past year and a half organizing rallies, giving speeches and using his support to exact revenge and further shape the party. But some supporters say the former president, who has left his Florida Mar-a-Lago club for Bedminster, New Jersey, for the summer, is also becoming impatient.
While he enjoys his role as party kingmaker – seeking the support of all but the candidates and racking up big tabs on fundraisers in his ballroom – Trump really remembers the days when he was king, especially as he struggles with Democratic President Joe Biden. Low acceptance ratings and rising inflation.
“I think a lot of Trump’s future plans are based directly on Biden, and I think as Biden continues to stumble on the world stage and at home, people forget the dark side, the negative side of Trump’s presidency,” Brian said. Lanza, a GOP strategist and former Trump campaign officer.
An announcement in the near future could complicate efforts by other ambitious Republicans to mount campaigns. Haley, for example, has said she will not run against Trump.
And there are concerns that the near-term announcement could hurt Republicans heading for the final phase of the midterm congressional campaign that seems increasingly favorable to the party. Trump’s candidacy could unite frustrated Democratic voters by reviving the party’s uplifting energy in the 2018 and 2020 campaigns.
Republicans want the November election to be a referendum on Biden’s first two years as president. They don’t want anything, including Trump, to be thrown out of that projection.
Despite his decision, the inevitability that Trump has been trying to create since the moment he left the White House has faded. Some Republicans have tried to make it clear that Trump’s candidacy will have little effect on their own decisions.
They include his vice president, Mike Pence, who was hailed by the Jan. 6 committee as a person who puts national interests ahead of his political views. Trump continued to criticize Pence, who has spoken several times at the conference, on Friday.
Looking at the White House’s rhetoric, Pence has drawn up a sharp political agenda focusing on democratic weaknesses.
Other potential candidates, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, have indicated they will not base their decision on Trump. And they and others have become increasingly disillusioned with the desire to overthrow the former president, in favor of candidates against him.
Some of these possible candidates, including former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, appeared at a meeting of the Confidence and Freedom Alliance in Nashville with the former president.
The area could include a long list of others on the Jan. 6 panel, including Republican leader Liz Cheney and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan – both Trump critics. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, sees many loyal Trump supporters as the future of his movement.
In fact, many of those attending the conference in Nashville – close to the resort Oprey House, where the long-running “Grand Ole Opry” country music radio program has aired – were not sold out in the third Trump race.
“I don’t know. The jury is still out with me,” said Jonathan Goodwin, a minister who works as a faith and freedom organizer in South Carolina. “I like him, but I think he’s shot himself in the leg several times.”
Goodwin said he “certainly” had his own concerns about the 2020 election but did not support how Trump handled the situation. “I think he should have bowed kindly,” she said, “whether it was rigged or not.”
Illinois Conservative Pam Rohel, who arrived at the conference on Friday wearing a red Trump baseball cap and “Trump 2020” necklace, said she still supports the former president, but finds herself in the minority among friends who have moved away from bumper stickers. And DeSantis embrace.
“They’re like, ‘Go to the show. Why don’t you support DeSantis?'” She said.
Although it is increasingly clear that Trump does not necessarily march on GOP nominees, a large area of ​​candidates can still work to his advantage. Dynamics began to coincide with the 2016 campaign, when Trump faced a large and uncomfortable group of candidates who split the anti-Trump vote.
Some in her class, such as former campaign adviser Jason Miller, have urged her to jump as fast as possible to take the lead in building the campaign, stop competing and take care of herself.
The initial strategy would allow Trump to use his growing legal weaknesses only as a political attack. Atlanta District Attorney has impeached a special grand jury to investigate his involvement in the 2020 presidential election. And in New York, Trump and his two children have agreed to sit down next month for a statement on his business practices in the state attorney general’s civil investigation.
Others are urging Trump to wait until after midterm so he can run for the Republican victory in November. He also warns that formally announcing his candidacy will trigger campaign finance laws that limit how much donors can give. It will also change its relationship with Save America PAC, which has more than $ 100 million in bank – more than the two national party organizations combined – and currently funds its campaign travel fund.