This week alone Trump has specifically urged Republicans NOT vote in the 2022 and 2024 elections unless hes magically reinstated by then.
Hes doing us a big favor by talking like this, because at least some small fraction of his cult will listen to him... and let's not forget the ones getting sick and dying from COVID because they chose not to vaccinate themselves.
Also, let's remember...in 2016, most Americans were NOT aware of how BATSHIT CRAZY Trump was and still is. Now, it's a different story.... and I'm not saying he doesn't have a chance, but he's got a track record now among independents to ponder. Plus, he's singing the SAME OL' SONG!!
In 2020, every American was entirely aware of how batshit crazy and outright incompetent Trump is, and it took his feces-throwing performance at the first presidential debate to firmly put his trajectory on the downward. And as Michael points out, he still received even more votes than in 2016. Enough Americans were willing to forgive COVID as a natural disaster as opposed to a willful policy failure.
His performance in 2016 stunned everyone. Even Trump thought he'd lose to Hillary--but there was enough resentment and rage to stoke that he pulled off a surprise win. Four years of epic mismanagement and failure later, all of it hand-waved away by the Republican establishment, and he lost convincingly to Biden.
Now he's spent the past near-year bitching about that and trying to work the refs.
He might try to run again in 2024 but I don't see a "perfect storm" of factors working in his favor again, even behind the scenes. And if he seems likely to lose, before he has to declare or stay out, he'll find a reason not to run.
I think if you listen/read the news that his followers are likely to be listening to, there is plenty for his followers to be pissed at.
Hell, there's stuff that I'm annoyed at from Biden (Afghanistan for one), and all Trump has to do is continue to lie the way he has before. from their point of view, the election was stolen and the guy in power is incompetent. Keep saying those two things and you have a winner.
As ever, all I see is people making the same mistakes now as before, because they can't believe what happened before.
He might try to run again in 2024 but I don't see a "perfect storm" of factors working in his favor again, even behind the scenes. And if he seems likely to lose, before he has to declare or stay out, he'll find a reason not to run.
More likely start complaining that the election is "rigged", just as he did in 2016.
It doesn't hurt that Trump continues to feed his supporters a steady diet of rich, bloody red meat while Biden shifts between giving his supporters nothing or confusion.
In 2020, Trump lost with 47% of the popular vote, and in 2016 won with 46%. Romney lost with 47% and McCain lost with 46%. Bush won with 50% and 48%. Based on those rounded percentages, doesn't seem that Trump has had more support than any other Republican candidate for president over the past two decades.
Of course, all that matters is the Electoral vote, so...
People should remember how many times a minority of brutal fanatics has taken over a nation without ever winning an election... if you accept Trump even won one that should tell us how even worse the situation today might be!
All these discussions about his candidacy avoid the real issue as to why he was ever a viable candidate at all and commands the following he does: the social and economic condition of his followers. Trump never creates anything new, his whole modus operandi is to take advantage of situations that already exist that haven't been properly exploited, and be more shameless in his doing so.
When he saw McCain refuse to give in to the raw meat of branding Obama as a menacing Muslim, he realized that the Republican party, which usually courts that faction (Lee Atwater/Reagan-Bush) underneath the table with a wink while renouncing them in the general public, needed a candidate to embrace them and their resentments and grievances fully and out in the open. As an "outside" candidate, he had the profile that could most credulously profit from that by his jumping the shark appeal.
Any future political approach needs to acknowledge these factions will still be out there and will find other candidates to follow, now that Trump has provided the mold for how to succeed.
If we don't get meaningful voter protection and reform, the GOP will have the state by state authority to support the "Trump victory" of an inevitably close race.
Claims of "fraud" will justify using new state laws to overturn state election results.
The insane part is that none of this is being done in the dark. The Federalist Society was video-recorded announcing this plan. The bills to do this keep getting written and passed. The groundwork for fraud claims keep getting pushed. The GOP has been so close to a crime syndicate for so long that it is, by this point, a well-oiled machine.