According to allies and GOP strategists, the fact that Donald Trump is being investigated for potential crimes related to his handling of documents that could threaten US national security will make him "unbeatable" in a Republican primary if he runs for a second term.
On Friday, a federal judge made public a search warrant and receipt of goods that show the Department of Justice seized top secret documents from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and that he could be charged with violating the Espionage Act.
Many politicians would be killed by that revelation.
Trump has been able to exploit the latest investigation into his actions to rake in money after years of convincing his supporters that he was the target of a deep state conspiracy. He now has a chorus of elected Republicans who are quick to dismiss the allegations as a sham.
The FBI raid has become a major source of revenue for the GOP. Some Republicans had hoped that it would not come until after the November elections so that they wouldn't have to worry about inflation and the economy.
Michael Caputo, a Trump associate who worked in the last administration on pandemic messaging, claimed just before the 2020 election that left-wing "hit squad" would engage in an insurrection to prevent a Trump victory.
Caputo said that he had talked about the next presidential race with Trump at a conservative conference in Dallas last weekend, just before the raid. He is going to be a candidate in 2024 according to the FBI.
In the past, Trump and his allies have expressed confidence. The former president went through two impeachment trials and urged his supporters to march on the US Capitol.
Past is not always seen in a positive way.
It's too early to say how this investigation will play out, according to a political advisor to Virginia's Republican governor.
"If you say this is a shoe-in for Trump, no questions asked, or if you say he's dead, you aren't thinking it all the way through," he said. We don't know what's going to happen with this.
According to The New York Times, some senior Republicans have been warned not to be so aggressive in their criticism of the Department of Justice because it is possible that more damaging information will become public. Some of the documents at Mar-a-Lago were related to nuclear weapons, according to the Washington Post.
The probe could be spun by Trump into conservative grievances with the Biden administration.
The investigation is seen by some Republican strategists as a huge plus for Trump, regardless of his merits.
One Republican who worked on a rival campaign in 2016 said that it made him pretty much unbeatable in a primary. Even if Trump picked the FBI director who signed off on the search, he could reprise his role as a "martyr" for the Democrats.
Trump's ability to convince a majority of Republican voters that he actually won the election was cited by the operatives. The source asked if they were going to believe the FBI. The operative said that it allowed him to get his supporters to support him.
Among the GOP base, he's going to be stronger than before.
Even if that's how it plays out in the GOP primary, it doesn't mean that Trump will be in a better position to win the White House.
Sam Nunberg, an advisor on Trump's 2016 campaign, told Insider that he has not become moreelectable for the general. This doesn't help him win the election.
The primary is going to be between Trump and Ron.
Even if the former president was fighting for his freedom in federal court at the same time as the next presidential election, it is unlikely that any other Republican will be able to improve their own political fortunes.
The FBI raid opened a window for other Republicans to attack Trump as a criminal, but he comes back even stronger, according to the operatives. It has been tried many times and no one has succeeded.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
