This is a huge factor. Trump isn’t the sort to play kingmaker. He might be a king, he might be a jester, but he’s not the type that would ever willingly accept the role of kingmaker.
ETA. Unless he’s dead or in extremely bad health, he’s going to run again.
A kingmaker has to ultimately defer to the king he created. The Don isn’t going to put in any minimal effort to elevate someone else to the top spot. In his simple mind, only he can be king.
I’m terrified that the prosecution of Weisellberg and The Org will compel DT to run in ‘24 in an attempt to create a practical immunity (not that I think that should deter the prosecutors). I think the likelihood of him running and winning are, unfortunately, reasonably high. I shudder to think of how unchained he’d be in a second term. The damage he’s caused in schooling a generation of Republicans in the efficacy of lying and gaslighting when you’ve got your constituents’ media sources running cover will reverberate for decades. I opened a noose shop on Etsy for whoever is interested.
Bleccccccccccccccccccccch.
He likes having immunity. He needs to have immunity.
Oh
My
Gawd!
This was his plan the entire time! Become President - this gives you absolute immunity for the 4 years in office, plus the year or so campaigning, plus a year or so after (“we can’t prosecute him - it will look like it’s political revenge!”). Do something so stupid that you’re voted out of office (could Trump have actually been working with the Chinese to develop COVID? Just askin’ here…), then announce your candidacy again (can’t indict - looks like a political hit), win again! You’ve just given yourself at least 14 years worth of immunity!
I guess he really is playing 5-dimentional chess!
It is inevitable.
Assuming he’s still alive and sufficiently functional.
Don’t tease like that! 
A Trump candidacy is fundraising and get-out-the-vote magic for the Democrats. Mealy-mouthed maggots like DeSantis and Haley might slither under the radar, but Trump is full lights and sirens. The Dem candidate in '24 might get 90 million votes. Bring it on!
I heard this “His campaigning can only help the Democrats!” crap the last time, and I am sick of it.
I wish you a speedy recovery.
If a Trump candidacy is inevitable, what’s the upside. Yeah, you take what you can get.
Not sure if this belongs here and didn’t want to start another thread over it, but in one of the first post-Presidency tests of Trump’s ability to influence elections, his preferred candidate in a House election lost 53-47. Both candidates were Republicans (it was a runoff from an early special election with 21 candidates).
Both candidates were pro-Trump, it’s just that one got Trump’s public favor.
The Democratic candidate (who I guess lost the primary? I don’t know how it works in Texas) said the Democrats should have done better, and that was a worrying sign. I want to think this means Trump’s influence has ebbed, but the guy lucked into the presidency and seems to have a reality-warping field around him, so I won’t let down my guard. Even if he doesn’t run, we might have to face President DeSantis or someone similar.
It was a special election to fill a vacant House seat (the incumbent died of COVID) where all candidates ran in the election (i.e. no primary). Because no candidate got 50%, the top two advanced to a run off.
I’m certainly not going to take a run off election of a special election to represent Waxahachie in Congress as some sort of national barometer, but I’m sure it has to grind Trump’s gears that the candidate he endorsed lost in a Republican face-off.
And your definition of that is … ?
And that alone is a reason to enjoy this result.
I expect him to say that he endorsed the winner all along.
After all the sturm und drang that went into this past election (still on-going, even), resulting in a hyped up turnout like we’ve never seen on both sides, I expect the nation will be very weary of all this come the next election or two. I have a premonition that turnout will be very attenuated for while.
But who will be most attenuated – Dems or Pubs? With the very relentless rabble-rousing by Pubs, together with their relentless voter suppression, and the traditionally laid-back Democrat get-out (this last election being a stark exception), I am not optimistic.
As to DeSantis in 2024: