Trump’s losing to his new rival DeSantis in polls for the first time

A new Yougov American national poll showed that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pulled ahead by 7 percentage points of former US President Donald Trump in the potential presidential primaries.

This is the first poll for the 2024 elections to show an advantage for DeSantis, and the first poll since February 2016 to indicate a weakening of Trump’s dominance in the Republican Party.

According to the poll, 42% of Republicans and independent Republican supporters now say they would prefer DeSantis as their 2024 presidential candidate, while Trump is backed by 35%.

Almost two months ago, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll of Americans, only 35% favored DeSantis, while 45% supported Trump. 

Trump has been on Putin’s side in Ukraine issue

Donald Trump has been on Vladimir Putin’s side in Ukraine’s long struggle against Russian aggression, CNN analysis concluded. Trump spoke about the “genius” of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine during the first days of Russia’s all-out war. There were also links between Trump associates and Russian officials highlighted by the media. During his presidential campaign in 2016, when addressing Russia’s violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, candidate Trump was conciliatory. He also pondered removing sanctions to improve ties with Putin.

Given that the Republican Party did not perform as well in the 2022 midterm elections as expected, and given that Trump publicly supported losing candidates, many Republicans are beginning to wonder if they should not nominate another candidate from their party for the 2024 presidential election instead of Trump.

According to the Washington Post’s report, some of Trump’s longtime allies have urged him to postpone his 2024 candidacy after Republicans failed to win a landslide victory in the November 8 midterm elections.

Photo: POLITICO