Trump Doubts Biden Will Make It to 2024, Shares Who He Thinks Will Replace Him
Former President Donald Trump recently suggested that he does not think President Joe Biden will “make it” if he tries to run for re-election in 2024.
Trump reasoned that Biden’s widely perceived cognitive decline and ill health will prevent the 81-year-old from seeking a second term in the White House. Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, who was interviewing Trump at the time of his statement, concurred with the presidential candidate.
“I personally don’t think he makes it,” the GOP front-runner said.
“I think he’s in bad shape physically … and mentally, I would say he’s possibly equally as bad, and maybe worse,” he added.
Trump suggested a more realistic choice would be Vice President Kamala Harris or California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom did well in a recent Fox News debate against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the former president told Hannity, despite being less than truthful in boasting about his state’s low taxes and clean streets. “He’s slick, but he’s got no facts,” Trump told Hannity.
BREAKING: Donald Trump says he doesn’t think Joe Biden will make it to run against him in the 2024 election pic.twitter.com/fqGIcCFjds
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) December 6, 2023
Harris, he continued, is also a possibility, “because if they didn’t give it to her, the African-American vote, the black vote, would not go to [Democrats].”
Biden has an uphill fight against the 45th president. Recent polls have shown Trump leading Biden in many of the swing states.
Some states like Nevada, which have not historically been considered swing states, are now considered to be places where Republican presidential victories could be possible.
Pollsters have noted weakening registration numbers for Democrats in key states like New Jersey.
Voter registration numbers in New Jersey are really staggering.
March 2021 – March 2023
NJ Dems: -11,878
NJ GOP: +71,829By next month, NJ Dems voter advantage will slip to under 1 million.
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) March 1, 2023
NJ Republicans net 4K more voters over Democrats in the last month.
Republicans have registered more voters than Democrats EVERY MONTH for the last 2 years. https://t.co/bqiBxxbWEo
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) November 1, 2023
Thanks to Trump and DeSantis’ efforts to solidify the Republican electoral base in Florida, reports have surfaced that the Florida Democratic Party believes they are at risk of the DNC giving up on them.
However, this is no reason for Trump to declare the election won. Democrats are currently enjoying an electoral boost from the abortion issue since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, returning the issue to states in the summer of 2022.
Further, neither the Trump campaign nor any other GOP candidate is doing enough to get white working-class voters registered.
Trump was the champion of the white working class in 2016, but he lost ground with this crucial cohort in 2020. Even though Trump’s losses with white workers without college degrees was only about two percent, this slight shift had a devastating impact on the president in the all-important Rust Belt in 2020.
Thirty-one percent of the white working class has not voted in the last three election cycles. This should be the singular focus of Trump’s (or any Republican’s) electoral efforts. Whether these voters are not voting because they have not been properly communicated with or because they are not registered to vote is immaterial.
The white working class remains a huge reservoir of untapped support for the GOP, and presidential candidates must continue to appeal to these voters and ensure they are registered to vote if Republicans want to continue to win.
Whether Trump faces Biden, Harris or Newsom, he would be well advised to appeal to the white working class by hammering these candidates on their records.
Trump wisely expressed his support for the United Auto Workers strike earlier this year. However, he missed an opportunity to have a knockout comment as Marine Le Pen did with the striking Whirlpool workers in France. For weeks, the opportunity to appeal to UAW steamed away, with union surrogates expressing frustration with Democrats, until Biden finally pounced and joined the picket line.
UAW represents many working-class individuals, and one can not forget that UAW bucked the Biden administration on the unconstitutional COVID vaccine mandate. Harris is likewise vulnerable here, not only because she is the most unpopular vice president in history, but because she is part of the administration that imposed that mandate.
This comes as Newsom and Biden have dually dug at the heart of America’s combustion engine manufacturing base. Newsom supported California’s attempted ban on gasoline-powered vehicles and Biden ordered the federal fleet’s transition to electric vehicles.
Newsom is vulnerable because he designated most blue-collar jobs and small businesses to be non-essential work during the pandemic while permitting extravagant dinners at the Michelin-starred Napa Valley restaurant French Laundry for himself. It’s hard for Newsom’s supposed charisma to overcome that.
While the tax issue has faded as Republicans have won the argument on income tax rates, there remains one area Trump should continue to push to push for change: the business entertainment tax.
The business entertainment tax is a sweet spot where corporate types and America’s working class can agree. Allowing 100 percent deductions for corporate business lunches and other forms of entertainment lets businessmen have the three-martini lunches Don Draper of “Mad Men” was once so accustomed to enjoying and it can flush entertainment workers with cash through tips and increased sales.
Unfortunately, the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act, which was highly effective in stimulating the economy in other ways, made business entertainment non-deductible.
However, Trump corrected course and signaled his support for making business entertainment fully deductible in 2020, but ultimately he failed to appropriately emphasize it in his campaign. If properly highlighted, this is the type of issue one can take to entertainment hubs like Nevada and New Jersey to appeal to the working class and voters of all social strata.
“Not only are the other guys bad for you, but I can be good for your wallet,” Trump can say to the working class in swing states. But Trump must conclude the message with, “Now here is where you can register to vote,” if he wants to ensure Biden, Harris — or “slick” Newsom — will not make it in 2024.
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