Trump used the third week of November for his 2024 announcement.

Washington
CNN
–

Top aides to former President Donald Trump have discussed the third week of November as a good starting point for the presidential election if Republicans do well in next week’s midterm elections, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Two sources said Trump’s team had specifically discussed Nov. 14 as an announcement date, in the middle of President Joe Biden’s planned overseas trip. Trump is unlikely to announce before then Monday, even though the GOP did better than expected on election night, because he doesn’t want to disrupt his daughter Tiffany’s Nov. 12 Mar-a-Lago wedding and share the news cycle with midterm results. Sources said.

These sources also warned that no date was locked in and that Trump could push it back if control of the Senate is not decided after Election Day or if Republicans see low gains in their House races. While there have been discussions about where Trump will launch his next White House bid, a person familiar with the matter said his team has not yet decided on a location and is still toying with advertising close to home in Palm Beach, Florida. After leaving Washington, he made his political career either a headquarters or a battleground area of ​​the Rust Belt, such as Ohio or Pennsylvania.

In a statement to CNN, Trump spokeswoman Taylor Budovich declined to comment on “the endless speculation and rumors.”

The former president has been eyeing the post-midterm period before Thanksgiving as a window of opportunity to launch his next political venture. CNN previously reported that Trump expects the GOP to make big gains on election night and wants to take advantage of Tuesday’s momentum if the forecast holds, especially if his hand-picked Senate candidates win key races in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona. Ohio and Georgia. Trump has expressed his intention to announce his 2024 rivals before the end of the year. One of them is former Vice President Mike Pence, who is set to release a book about his time in office on November 15 and recently said that “there could be someone else” as the next Republican presidential nominee, fueling speculation. He intends to challenge his former boss.

At a rally in Iowa on Thursday, Trump told the audience to “get ready” to get back on the presidential campaign trail, hinting that he would “very, very likely” do it again by running for the White House. It was the latest attempt by him to woo Republicans without publicly announcing a third term campaign before Election Day, something House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other top Republicans have previously encouraged Trump to avoid.

“I give him a lot of credit for not announcing this year [and] Not to step on the path of mid-term candidates. I’m glad he didn’t do that. That was actually my advice from the beginning,” former White House counsel Kellyanne Conway told reporters at an event Thursday morning.

News of Trump’s potential announcement on November 14 was first reported by Axios.

Trump’s announcement comes later this month as the Justice Department ends its traditional quiet period leading up to Election Day and continues to explore a number of high-profile investigations that could heat up after Election Day, when Trump associates could be indicted. They are involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The former president is under investigation for bringing classified government documents to Mar-a-Lago late in his presidency and was recently subpoenaed by the House Select Committee for testimony and documents in connection with the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Meanwhile, Trump faces an ongoing investigation by Fulton County prosecutors into his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

Justice Department officials have discussed whether Trump’s nomination would create the need for a special counsel to oversee two sprawling federal investigations into the former president, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.