WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump has hinted at contesting the 2020presidential election bid.
Trump on Tuesday announced his seriousness about contesting the election in2020. He has talked about it often – staying in office for eight years -and set up a fund raising organisation even before he took charge aspresident in 2017. But when he announced that Brad Parscale would be hiscampaign chief, it was the most concrete announcement yet.
The announcement was made by Eric Trump, the president’s son, in a preparedstatement on Tuesday. “Brad is an amazing talent and was pivotal to oursuccess in 2016. He has our family’s complete trust and is the perfectperson to be at the helm of the campaign.”
And that is not just the typical hyperbole that Trump and those around himare prone to. Parscale had been the digital director of Trump’s successfuland surprise 2016 bid for the White House. He is credited with using socialmedia platforms, especially Facebook, as a crunching force multiplier todevastating effect against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
US media reports said Parscale has been tasked with building up themanpower and infrastructure necessary for a presidential bid for the 2020re-election. Not only that, the Trump campaign said he would helpRepublican candidates in the round of elections scheduled for this year.
Trump announcing his seriousness to run for the White House again hardlysurprised anyone. Even before he had taken oath, he had prepared thepaperwork for his re-election even before he took oath in January 2017.
However, it remains to be seen if he even manages to get the Republicannomination. The Grand Old Party (GOP) had been unable to stop him fromclinching the ticket in 2016. And with many Republican seats in the USSenate and House of Representatives coming up for re-election this year,many candidates are running away from any association with Donald Trump.
Trump-backed candidates have faced a string of defeats in elections. Of allthe defeats, the one that stung the most was that of Roy Moore to DemocratDoug Jones. The seat was in the deeply Republican Alabama, where it wasconsidered impossible for the Democrats to score a victory.
If many more Republican candidates lose in 2018 due to the anti-Trump wave,the chances that the Republican Party may find enough reason to cometogether to keep Trump away.