Donald Trump ‘Is In Trouble’ Insiders Say As Ron DeSantis’ Popularity Over Him Surges In Polls
December 15, 2022 by Marissa Matozzo
As twice-impeached former president Donald Trump attempts to run for office again, he may be hitting a notable low point when it comes to Republican and Republican-leaning voter approval, as seen in a new poll.
In a survey conducted and published this week by by USA Today and Suffolk University, Florida governor Ron DeSantis led Trump, 76, by 23 points when it came to choosing a potential Republican nominee for president in 2024.
Another survey was done the following day by the Wall Street Journal, which saw DeSantis, 44, succeed with a 14-point lead, 52%-38%, in a “hypothetical primary matchup,” the Guardian reported, and a CNN poll also indicated that 62% of Republicans wanted their party to nominate someone other than Trump in 2024. As the Guardian noted, after seeing the polls, one ‘veteran Trump insider’ said, “He IS in trouble.”
David Paleologos, the director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, sat down with USA Today, and similarly added, “Republicans and conservative independents increasingly want Trumpism without Trump.”
This, as many political analysts and experts would agree, can be seen with the apparent rise of DeSantis this year, a hard-right congressman and former US military lawyer who the Guardian writes “has pursued distinctly Trumpist hardline and theatrically cruel policies as governor of Florida, in particular on immigration and education.”
Quinnipiac University researchers also recently found that Trump is now the “least popular with voters” that he’s ever been since 2015, after conducting their own poll. They realized, as Forbes reports, that the billionaire’s approval rating when it comes to GOP voters significantly plummeted as he is also currently facing several infamous legal battles and lawsuits.
In Washington D.C. earlier this week, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that Trump had cost the Republican party in key seats by supporting primary candidates who failed to win over voters in the midterm elections this fall. “We ended up having a candidate quality test,” McConnell said to journalists at the Capitol.
He added, “Look at Arizona. Look at New Hampshire. And the challenging situation in Georgia, as well.” He continued, “Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in 22 because the support of the former president proved to be very decisive in these primaries.”
In addition, things aren’t looking great for Trump also due to the anticipated and rumored presidential run of Mike Pence, his former running mate and Vice President. Many Republicans believe, as seen on social media and elsewhere, that Pence is gearing up to announce his 2024 run for president.
While visiting New Hampshire (a crucial early-voting state) this week, Pence told Fox News that reader reception of his new memoir “has been a great source of encouragement as we think about the way forward and what our calling might be in the future.” Pence added that he and his wife Karen will make a decision whether to run next year, after “prayerful consideration” this holiday season. “We’ll continue to travel, we’ll continue to listen,” he said.