Donald Trump is ramping up his political efforts, with a series of planned "policy" speeches and conversations with top GOP donors as he weighs the timing for an expected announcement he is running for president. That announcement could come at any time but some close to the former president believe it will be before the November midterms.
Exactly when is anyone's guess, unbeknownst to even the prospective candidate himself.
But amid criticism the Dept. of Justice's investigation has offered no apparent evidence it is planning to indict the former president despite 58% of Americans saying it should, reports state Trump is expected to once again run for president.
"The former president is now eyeing a September announcement, according to two Trump advisers," The Washington Post reports. "One confidant put the odds at '70-30 he announces before the midterms.' And others said he may still decide to announce sooner than September."
“You can only hold him off so long,” one adviser told The Post. “One day he’ll wake up and say, ‘Put it out.’”
Trump faces many challenges, including news that broke Wednesday night that the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack plans to hold a second series of hearings starting next month. The Committee, whose hearings have drawn huge viewership ratings, originally planned to end its publicly televised hearings on the insurrection it lays at the former president's feet with a primetime event next week.
Polling shows that the vast majority of Americans (59%) hold Trump responsible for the insurrection, and that same number believe he “misled” them about the results of the 2020 election. Two out of three (67%) also say Trump attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Almost as many, (65%) say Trump claimed that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent without evidence.
GOP strategists and politicians have cautioned Trump to not announce until after the November midterms, on fears over his low approval rating and indications many of his former supporters have moved on and do not want him to run a third time.
"Public and internal party polls in several key states show that Trump rates behind even Biden, who has suffered a historic collapse in public support since taking office. Trump lost a recent hypothetical head-to-head poll against Biden in New Hampshire and trails Biden in favorability in Wisconsin, both sites of marquee Senate contests this fall."
“Of all the selfish things he does every minute of every day, it would probably be the most,” a "prominent Republican strategist" told The Post.
Trump initially wanted to announce last year in August, but advisors urged him to wait, citing campaign financing rules that would "limit his ability to access funds in his Save America PAC, which has been paying for his staff and events, trigger equal time rules on television and allow Democrats to reframe the election away from Biden’s unpopular presidency," according to The Post.
More recently, rumors of a July 4 announcement came and went.
"Trump has decided in recent weeks to stage a series of what aides dub policy speeches as he continues to plan the structure of his next campaign. He gave a speech on crime Friday in Las Vegas, where he resurfaced his old idea that drug dealers should be given the death penalty."
Trump "will return to Washington on July 26 to deliver what's being billed as a major policy speech," CNN adds, noting it will be his first time back in D.C. since he left office, refusing to attend his successor's inauguration. "Trump will deliver remarks at the America First Agenda Summit, a conference hosted by one of the MAGA-aligned outside groups that formed after his presidency."
Axios reports that July 26 event will be attended by a huge number of his former aides, advisors, and cabinet officials. Among them, eight former cabinet-level officials, eight former administration officials, 13 GOP House members, 10 GOP Senators, three former GOP governors, and Newt Gingrich.