In a video that was shared to social media on Thursday, former President Donald Trump refers to himself as the 45th and 47th president of the United States, a statement that suggests he is planning a second presidential run for 2024.
In the video, Trump is teeing off on a golf course when the videographer refers to him as the 45th president. Trump promptly corrects him, implying that he will be the president after current President Joe Biden, who is the 46th president.
“Forty-fifth and 47th,” Trump says.
While the sycophants stroke his fragile ego by telling him every shot is the most incredible they’ve ever seen, Trump says he will be the 47th president. https://t.co/YL8ilTSbJP
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 26, 2022
Currently, however, it seems that Trump will face difficult odds in winning the 2024 presidential election. While the former president remains the most popular option in Republican circles, his popularity among the electorate overall is quite low.
Polling from the Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research this month shows that only 27 percent of voters in the U.S. want Trump to run again, versus a whopping 72 percent who don’t want him to run.
But if Trump does decide to run, it’s likely that he’ll successfully secure the GOP nomination. A Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted last week found that 49 percent of Republican-leaning voters want Trump to be the party’s nominee. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who came in second place, only secured 13 percent support.
If Trump goes up against Biden for a second time, the race will be close, as that same poll found Biden leading Trump by just one point.
Beyond Trump’s lack of public support, the former president faces myriad legal troubles. The Trump Organization is currently under civil and criminal investigation by the state of New York and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for allegations of tax evasion; the company also allegedly lied about its net worth in order to obtain business loans.
Meanwhile, Trump faces potential criminal charges in Fulton County, Georgia, where county District Attorney Fani Willis is currently determining whether the former president is guilty of attempting to coerce state officials to engage in election fraud.
In a telephone call that was recorded in December of 2020, Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to “find” him 11,780 votes — the exact number needed to overturn Biden’s win in the state. The former president also threatened Raffensperger and his legal counsel, saying that they could be held criminally liable if they didn’t comply with his demands.
Willis is currently determining whether to go forward with a criminal case against Trump, and has said that she will make a decision sometime in the first half of this year. If Trump is charged and found guilty, he could face a potential prison sentence of one to three years.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.