Donald
Trump, bolstered by the results of a straw poll at the Conservative Political
Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, hinted at announcing his
presidential run for the 2024 elections. Trump, 76, has repeatedly said he has made
a decision on the 2024 run. On Saturday, he said a formal announcement will
come soon. “It’s certainly not a very long period, the time is coming,” the
former United States president said.

An unofficial
straw poll of attendees at CPAC found 69% wanted Donald Trump as the Republican
Party nominee in the 2024 elections. Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, came a
distant second with 24% of the vote. However, when the straw poll removed Donald
Trump from the list of nominees, 65% voted for DeSantis and 8% said they would
support Donald Trump Jr.

Announcing
results of the straw survey, Jim McLaughlin, a pollster for Donald Trump, said,
“He’s more popular than ever.” Two hours after the survey results were out, Trump,
who is being investigated for being complicit in an attack on the US Capitol in
a bid to overturn the results of the last presidential elections, said, “I
think people are going to be very happy.”

Addressing
the CPAC, Donald Trump said, “…our country has never been in a position like
this, we’ve lost everything.” He said the United States was facing both
domestic and foreign policy crises and added that the nation’s prestige was
damaged on account of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“They gave
away $85 million billion worth of equipment, dead soldiers, you still have
Americans over there probably as hostages, eventually will be hostages, there
has never been a time like this,” said Trump, adding, “We will be making an
announcement in the not too distant future.”

Trump, even
after losing the 2020 elections, has maintained a strong hold over the
Republican Party. He has been busy endorsing candidates right from local polls
to Senate elections.

While Trump
has dropped hints about a presidential run, Ron DeSantis hasn’t even dropped a
hint. But the Florida governor has emerged as an effective second favourite. While
CPAC voters saw DeSantis as the first choice in absence of Donald Trump at the
ballot, the sections of American media critical of the GOP have repeatedly said
DeSantis represents a bigger threat than Trump.

“DeSantis
is smarter than Trump. That makes him more of a threat,” wrote Max Boot in the
Washington Post. MSNBC ran two editorials titled: “Why Ron DeSantis is More
Dangerous than Trump?” and “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a far more dangerous
politician than Donald Trump.”

Ron
DeSantis, 46, a Harvard law graduate who provided legal assistance to troops at
Guantanamo Bay, has wide appeal among Trump voters in Florida. The Florida
governor himself, however, identifies as a “Teddy Roosevelt conservationist.”