'Silver lining' awaits Democrats after Trump jumps into the 2024 race: columnist

With Donald Trump teasing out possible dates for his leap into the Republican Party 2024 presidential race, one Guardian columnist predicted the former president will bring enough chaos with him that will -- in the long run -- be a gift to the Democratic Party.

Central to Arwa Mahdawi's prediction is the burgeoning war between the former president and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for the top spot which could lead to a GOP civil war as two sides within the party start going after each other.

As Mahdawi noted, members of the party have spent weeks imploring Trump to delay his announcement because it would take the focus of Tuesday's midterms and lead to unneeded turmoil.

She then noted, that the announcement that he has been teasing will likely make Democrats recoil at the prospect of two more years of Trump dominating the headlines as he did during his four years in office, but there is a big plus that Democrats should embrace.

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"There’s a decent chance that Trump throwing his hat into the ring will divide the Republican party and, if we’re lucky, cause them to eat their own," she wrote. "Right now, you see, the top unofficial 2024 Republican contender is Florida governor Ron DeSantis, whom Trump is extremely annoyed with. Trump helped DeSantis go from relative obscurity to rightwing darling when he endorsed him back in 2018."

However, as she pointed out, "Since then, however, DeSantis hasn’t been kissing the ring enough. He’s gone from a protege to a potential threat – one that Trump is very keen on neutralising," before adding that the former president fired the first shot of the 2024 race by dubbing the Florida Republican "Ron DeSanctimonius."

With that in mind, Mahdawi suggested that Democrats encourage the Trump/DeSantis slugfest by baiting the thin-skinned Trump and the overly-ambitious DeSantis.

"The Democrats, I reckon, ought to be weaponising Trump’s insecurities as best they can," she explained. "Democrats should be getting operatives to call up Trump and say: 'Hey, did you hear what DeSanctimonious said about you?' Then they should be calling DeSantis up and saying: 'Hey, did you hear what Trump said about you? Then they should sit back and watch as two of the most popular – and most awful – Republicans tear each other apart."

"Forget Nixon’s 'madman theory': behold Mahdawi’s 'middle-school politics theory,'" she quipped.