President Donald Trump seems to be realizing that "there is no future for him" within the Republican Party, and that could make his next "desperate play" to stay relevant his most dangerous one yet, according to one analyst.
For more than a decade, Trump has faced little dissent from within the Republican ranks in Congress, David Rothkopf, a columnist for The Daily Beast, argued during an episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" that aired on Sunday. Now, he's facing a cadre of critics from within his party, such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and his signature tariffs.
That resistance, Rothkopf argued, is like "staring death in the face" for Trump.
"His political mortality is right around the corner," Rothkopf said. "And there is going to come a moment, and I don't know when that moment is, but there is going to come a moment where the majority of people in the Republican Party say, 'He's a lame duck, who's next?'"
This is going to be devastating because what Trump cares about more than anything else, even more than money, is being relevant, and he's going to make this desperate play to say, 'No, I'm still relevant,'" he continued. "'You remember Joe Biden, right? Nobody remembers Joe Biden. Joe Biden was president earlier this year."
Rothkopf said Trump dangling running for a third term is an example of how desperately Trump is chasing relevancy.
"It's just a desperate attempt to cling to relevance," Rothkopf said. "It's the policy equivalent of a trophy wife. It makes him feel younger."