(RepublicanInformer.com)- Donald Trump loves to keep allies and adversaries guessing, but he has now flashed a card concerning the 2024 presidential election in his tightly guarded hand.
Despite being 75 years old, overweight, and suffering from various medical conditions, the former president has long maintained that he is in excellent physical and mental health. He’s been bragging about a hole in one he bagged at one of his Florida golf courses recently, and it’s helped him raise money.
“Many people are inquiring, so I’ll tell you right now, it is 100 percent true,” Trump said in a statement posted by his post-presidency office on March 28, before plugging his opulent property. “It happened on the 7th hole at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.”
What followed was classic. The Donald portrays himself as an athletic genius on the links, capable of overcoming a breeze and a course skillfully designed to provide a stern test.
Trump said that he hit a 5-iron that soared wonderfully into a stiff breeze, with roughly 5 feet of cut, when it bounced twice and then went clank, into the hole.
To be fair, holes in one are uncommon and very thrilling. The former President also brags about winning the day’s match, which he played with Ernie Els, a four-time major tournament champion from South Africa:
More classic Trump– “I won’t tell you who won because I am a very humble man, and you would think I was bragging — and I don’t like people who brag!”
The Republican Party’s standard-bearer is many things, but modest is not one of them. So it came as a surprise when Trump, in an interview with The Washington Post, exhibited some humility and recognized his age and health.
When questioned about running for the Republican presidential nomination after the midterm elections in November, he seems to imply that he is not in prime physical shape.
Trump explained that you have to talk about health all the time. You can appear to be in good health, but the next day you get a note from a doctor saying, ‘Come see me again,’ and when they use the term ‘again,’ that’s not good.
The former president’s remark should raise questions about his candidacy in 2024.
A political science professor at Catawba College in North Carolina, Michael Bitzer said that if Trump decides not to run in 2024, the election will be wide open. The stampede to get Trump’s presidential nomination endorsement will be vast. That could perhaps be the greater struggle inside the GOP. Who does Trump pick as heir apparent?
Would Trump be able to refrain from commenting on the primaries and how the party’s final nominee opted to take on President Joe Biden daily?
It would be pretty on-brand for The Donald, whose entire political character is built on the premise that he is a once-in-a-generation thinker, to irritate the nominee in 2024 by second-guessing every choice they make.
Would he be able to keep his hold on the party despite his ego? In many respects, it’s playing out in the numerous GOP primary fights for Trump’s endorsement in 2022.
