Former President Donald Trump has not been open about what his future may hold, including whether he intends to run for office again or not. However, Trump indicated this week that he will attempt to play a role of some kind in the future of U.S. politics.
Trump established “The Office of the Former President” on Monday, which will be located in Palm Beach County, Florida, not far from his current residence at Mar-a-Lago. The office, according to a press release announcing its establishment, will be run by his former White House aides and will handle his “correspondence, public statements, appearances and official activities,” and will serve as a means for him “to carry on the agenda of the Trump administration.”
“President Trump will always and forever be a champion for the American People,” the press release added.
The office may also give Trump a means to disseminate his views more broadly, using traditional media to do so as he has been banned from making social media posts on almost every mainstream platform across the internet.
It is still unclear what Trump himself may do in the months or even years ahead, although some are speculating that the announcement indicates that he won’t be running for president in 2024. Indeed, recent polling shows that Trump has lost support among Republicans after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden and instigating a mob of his loyalists to attack the Capitol during the certification process for the results for that election.
In November, shortly after Biden’s win, 54 percent of Republicans said they wanted to see Trump run again in four years, according to numbers from a Politico/Morning Consult poll at that time. That number has dwindled down to 42 percent in a more recent poll — still a plurality of support from GOP respondents, but a significant drop nonetheless.
Whether Trump runs again in 2024 or not, it’s expected that he will look to use his continued popularity among GOP voters to influence other elections, including encouraging his base of supporters to back primary challenges against Republican lawmakers he feels did not back him enough during his attempts to overturn the results of the presidential election.
Trump has already begun backing people he perceives to be loyal to him for future Republican primary elections. Shortly after Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced her intention to run for governor of Arkansas this week, Trump publicly endorsed her candidacy, describing his former press secretary as a “warrior” who would “do what is right, not what is politically correct.”
Although Trump’s supporters and those within the GOP may want him to remain in politics, most Americans hope that he won’t be allowed to hold elected office ever again.
According to a Monmouth University poll released on Monday, 56 percent of Americans approve of the House of Representatives’ recent action to impeach Trump over his role in instigating violence at the Capitol this month. Fifty-two percent say they hope the Senate will vote to convict Trump, and if that happens, according to the poll, 57 percent of Americans say they want that legislative body to also bar him from holding any federal office in the future, a provision that’s allowed according to the Constitution.
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Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
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