On Nov. 15, 2022, former President Donald Trump announced he was running for President again in 2024. His announcement is not a surprise, as President Trump had been hinting at a potential bid since he lost in 2020.  

Although he had the most votes for a Republican in U.S. history, many believe he has no shot at winning in 2024. There are many rising figures in the Republican party, most notably Florida governor, Ron DeSantis. Governor DeSantis poses as a threat to President Trump and the former president knows this, even though Governor DeSantis hasn’t announced a Presidential bid. President Trump has already created a nickname for him, calling him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” Childish behavior by the former president has resulted in him losing popularity and is one of the few reasons he will not win and why he will cause the Republican Party to lose. 

In a 2016 Republican primary debate, President Trump said that he would run as an Independent if he did not win the Republican nomination, so who says he wouldn’t run as an Independent if he loses? 

“I do think he will run as an Independent,” said senior Matthew Lee. “I can’t imagine he would just accept defeat. It’s just not his personality.”  This would be a driving factor in a Republican loss, as he and the Republican nominee would likely split the vote and allow the Democratic nominee to win.  

This happened during the 1992 presidential election between President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton. A Conservative Independent, Ross Perot, ran and split the vote with George Bush. This helped Bill Clinton to win by a huge margin in the electoral college with only 43.7% of the popular vote. 

Another reason President Trump will not succeed in his third try for president are his ongoing investigations. His Mar-a-Lago home was recently raided by the FBI for having classified documents at the residence. This has caused lots of controversy in the United States, whether or not he gets charged. Another major event that has hurt him greatly were the Jan. 6 capitol riots. This awful moment in U.S. history has thrown blame at him for riling up the election protestors. 

“I think it will be hard for Trump to win mainly because of the capitol riots,” said senior Ian Duarte. These are permanent stains on his reputation that many people will cite when voting in 2024. 

The last major reason the former president will result in loss for the Republican Party, is his unprofessional attitude during his presidential term. Many Republicans loved his policies but couldn’t stand him saying very unusual things on social media. 

“He was pretty funny on twitter, but that’s not what a president is supposed to be,” said senior Carson Vernon. “It was disrespectful to the office and some of the things he said on twitter made him seem very uneducated.” His “different” approach to issues was appealing to voters in 2016, but now it has gotten very old, and most people want someone who is more professional when facing certain issues. 

The recent, very poor Republican-showing at the midterm elections also have caused people to lose confidence in President Trump. In many important swing races, Trump-backed Republicans failed to win. Republican candidate Herschel Walker lost in a runoff election to Raphael Warnock and Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz lost a major Senate race to Democrat John Fetterman. People are blaming him for the poor midterm performance especially because he promised a Red-Wave. 

“I definitely think people will blame President Trump for the midterm loss,” said senior Will Bodnar. “It shows that people will just vote against him, rather than vote for the other candidate, even from moderate Republicans.” It seems as if the former president has lost confidence from his own party. 

Many people believe President Trump could win if he is nominated because President Joe Biden has very low approval ratings. However, it’s not a guarantee that Biden runs again. It seems as if he isn’t in the best shape physically and mentally, so the Democrats might run a different candidate to win the election. 

“I think Beto O’Rourke might get the nomination,” Vernon said. “He gave Texas Governor Greg Abbott a run for his money at the midterms this year in a very red state, so he could take the Democratic nomination.” The 2024 election is so far away, so no one really knows who is running quite yet, but everyone knows it will be a crucial and very interesting 2024 election.