Axios Scoop: Trump Plans To Announce Run 11/14 To ‘Surf the GOP’s Expected Post-Midterm Euphoria’

Well, well, well, we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves here now, aren’t we? What’s that expression? Oh yeah, don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched. Axios is reporting  that “Trump and his top advisers have been signaling for weeks that a 2024 announcement is imminent. But those discussions have reached the point that allies are blocking off days in their calendars for the week after the midterms — and preparing to travel.”

Intriguing how they’re blocking off their calendars, just assuming that everything is going to break their way and it’s going to be victory lap time.

I wonder if anybody in the Trump camp has the guts to even whisper, remember what happened in 2016 when the Democrats were so cock sure? Or, maybe they’re too scared and they just keep their mouths shut.

What we’re hearing: With polls pointing toward a good night for Republicans on Tuesday, Trump plans to surf the GOP’s expected post-midterm euphoria to build momentum for his own effort to retake the White House.

• Look for Trump to take credit for Republican victories across the board —including those he propelled with his endorsements, and even those he had nothing to do with.

Between the lines: Trump has long planned to announce shortly after midterms — and even toyed with announcing before Nov. 8 — in an effort to get ahead of potential rivals for the GOP’s 2024 nomination, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

• In recent weeks, Trump has been inching closer and closer to saying he is running, relishing the applause as he hints to his rally crowds that he’s doing it.

• At his Thursday rally in Sioux City, Iowa, Trump said: “In order to make our country successful and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again … Get ready that’s all I’m telling you — very soon. Get ready.”

• A Trump spokesman declined to comment. The discussions are still fluid and could change depending on Tuesday’s results, especially if the Senate still hangs in the balance and the Georgia race between Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock goes to a run-off.

Reality check: It’s Trump. So anything could happen — or not. He’s conflicted on the timing and nothing is ever certain. But people who have been close to him for many years are lacing up for the next race.

Let’s just wait and see. The only thing crystal clear at this point in time vis a vis this election is that it just got more interesting. If the GOP washes out at the ballot box, or at the very least doesn’t do as well as they now expect to do, then “surfing the euphoria” is going to be a little difficult. And even if the GOP does better than we might hope, I think it’s still a certainty that all of Trump’s endorsed candidates are not going to win.

Doug Mastriano looks to be toast, just to name one. J.D. Vance looks worse and worse every day. And regardless of what the polls say about Georgia, I think Herschel Walker has hung himself. I don’t think I’m wrong about that. You may recall me quoting a statistic that 55% of the early voting in Georgia was done by women. I think that the Roe decision the end of July, which the press seems to think has been long forgotten, is on the ballot, bigly, and I think that political reporting right now stinks on ice. Here is “Poll Reversal” from the New York Times:

In the last days before Tuesday’s midterm elections, the polls have increasingly reached a consensus on the state of the race: Republicans lead. […]

In one sense, the new Republican strength was foreseeable. The president’s party almost always gets pummeled in midterm elections, especially when his approval rating is as low as President Biden’s, which is hovering just over 40 percent. In the era of modern polling dating back nearly a century, no precedent exists for the president’s party to hold its own in the House when his approval rating is well beneath 50 percent.

I call bullshit. The reason I say that is because whatever historical precedent says, has nothing to do with this moment in history. Historical precedent said that a vulgar loudmouth talking about grabbing women by their genitalia wouldn’t ever get elected president. Remember how that prediction went?

This is what I’ve been ranting about for quite some time now, this boilerplate approach to covering politics and the mess it has landed us in. What TF is wrong with these editors who still cover politics this way when if recent history has taught us anything, it has taught us that all bets are off? The GOP is shattered, that’s been the case since 2015. It doesn’t freaking matter what the history books say, we’re living in a different era now.

If you have a moment, please read my piece on how the press is completely out of step with reporting politics and must rise to this moment in history or perish. I sincerely believe what I wrote there. If nothing else, it might put you in a better mood when you read these depressing polls all weekend and next Monday.

The clock is ticking, the calendar is flipping and we shall see. I’ll believe the GOP surfing in euphoria when I see it. And maybe I will. God knows I’ve been wrong before. But I don’t see the landmark Roe decision being forgotten like it was nothing and a $.21 disparity in a gallon of gas being far more important than womens’ lives. That you’re going to have to show me.