Trump announces his 2024 bid — as always, his needs come first

DON’T WRITE HIM OFF

We’ve seen, and heard, this before.

The lavish backdrop. The yeasty mix of hyperbole, lies and grievance.

Just four minutes into his presidential announcement Tuesday night, Donald Trump floated a new theory that meddling by the Chinese government cost him reelection.

What’s striking about Trump’s early entry in the 2024 race is how familiar it seemed. Not just in its sulfurous tone and gold-plated trappings. But also the position the former president finds himself in as he tries to defy expectation and demolish the rules most politicians live by.

When Trump glided down the gilded escalator in Trump Tower in June 2015, he was generally regarded as a novelty act.

All this time later Trump is politically back where he started.

Even before the midterm’s red mirage, there were signs Trump was losing his grip on the Republican Party.

More than 6 in 10 partisans surveyed in a preelection NBC News poll said they considered themselves more supporters of the GOP than Trump.

There have been countless times when the overwhelming majority of Republicans were believed ready to disown Trump. Choose your adventure: the sliming of John McCain and Gold Star families; the “Access Hollywood” tape; the Charlottesville, Virginia, white power riot; the failed 2020 reelection bid; the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“It’s three elections in a row where he has led the party to defeat,” said Rob Stutzman, a Sacramento-based GOP strategist

The number of GOP faithful who pledge their allegiance to Trump is not insignificant. The NBC poll put that backing at 30%. If, as happened in 2016, Republican support is splintered, that base could be enough for the former president to again prevail.

“There were … a lot of disappointments,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Tuesday. “That’s just the reality. It was a hugely underwhelming, disappointing performance, especially given that (President Joe) Biden’s policies are overwhelmingly unpopular.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence was curt. Asked in an ABC interview about Trump and his 2024 plans, Pence — once the model of unswerving subservience — replied crisply, “I think we will have better choices in the future.”

It’s one thing, though, to offer commentary and take potshots from the confines of a TV studio or, in DeSantis’ case, to wage a thinly veiled shadow campaign for the GOP nomination. It remains to be seen how many actually declare their candidacies and step into Trump’s line of fire.

Experience has shown the folly of dismissing the former president or writing him off, tempting though it may be.

He is, at this moment, the front-runner to claim the GOP nomination.

Whether Trump’s candidacy is good for the Republican Party, not to mention a country so acutely polarized, is a whole other question.

Much of the tension and hostility can be ascribed to four relentless years of Trump’s bombast and belligerence; Tuesday’s announcement served as a reminder of just how shameful and toxic he is.

In more than an hour of Sturm und Drang, Trump offered little that was forward-looking beyond a clutch of vague promises. Instead, Trump flattered himself, dwelled on old gripes and jabbed at old nemeses like Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the FBI.

There are plenty of self-serving reasons why Trump would run again.

Attention is his oxygen. A presidential campaign is a marketing opportunity to sell even more MAGA paraphernalia and Trump-branded doodads. In his mind, it may keep prosecutors at bay, or at least color any possible criminal charges Trump faces as being politically motivated.

Never mind what’s good for the GOP, or America. With the former president, it’s always Trump first.