Is Donald Trump going to run in 2024? And if he does, will the world go even more completely crazy? These are questions that almost nobody wants to answer. Many of us are in denial. President Trump broke something in the global political psyche the first time round, which is why so many commentators struggle to admit the obvious: that, by the end of January 2025, Bad Orange Man could well be back in the White House, trolling the universe.
The last, best hope of liberal sanity is that Trump will decide not to stand again. He is 76. He knows that running for the White House, and then being president, is one of the most stressful and exhausting things any human being can do. ‘He doesn’t want to end up like Biden,’ says a Republican operator who knows Trump well.
Then again, Trump is in better shape than poor Biden was four years ago. Friends say he’s a picture of health. ‘He thinner, fitter and he’s in remarkably good spirits,’ says Nigel Farage, who has been making regular pilgrimages to the Donald’s residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. ‘So yes, absolutely, I think he will run. Why wouldn’t he?’
For people in denial, it’s obvious why he wouldn’t. He was the most divisive president in living memory. He lost an election and refused to accept the result, and his incendiary and bogus claims of electoral fraud led to the scenes of 6 January last year, when a mob of his supporters broke into the Capitol building in Washington, DC.
None of that matters to Trump. In his mind, history has already vindicated his record, and (here’s the really challenging part for any fair-minded person) he’s not altogether wrong. Under Trump, the American economy performed well. Inflation was at 1.4 per cent when he left office; gas (petrol) at $2 a gallon.
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