Day 1,393: Trump already eyeing 2024 run

Donald Trump knows he lost the 2020 election, regardless of the absurd positions he is taking and the gaslighting the GOP is doing in courts of law and public opinion.

Trump’s private musings reportedly focus on nigh-impossible and far-flung ideas, like overturning the will of the voters with faithless electors.

[Trump] then proceeded to press [his advistors] on whether Republican legislatures could pick pro-Trump electors in a handful of key states and deliver him the electoral votes he needs to change the math and give him a second term, according to people briefed on the discussion.

Actual work — extraordinarily low on Trump’s priority list for four years — has gone completely by the wayside.

But the work of government has been reduced to something of a sideshow for the president. He has not made any public appearances except for a visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day since an angry statement a week ago.

And much to the chagrin of the Nikki Haleys, Mike Pences, Mike Pompeos, Marco Rubios, Tom Cottons and Ted Cruzes of the world, Trump is considering announcing a run for the presidency in 2024. That proclamation could come in the next few weeks and would largely paralyze the behind-the-scenes jockeying for early position.

As a next step, Mr. Trump is talking seriously about announcing that he is planning to run again in 2024, aware that whether he actually does it or not, it will freeze an already-crowded field of possible Republican candidates. And, Republicans say, it will keep the wide support he showed even in defeat and could guarantee a lucrative book deal or speaking fees.

Meanwhile, Trump is desperate to stay in the news cycle for any reason, even if that means continuing to tout baseless conspiracy theories meant to throw as big an antidemocratic wrench in the 2020 election as possible.

1,393 days in, 69 to go

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