Although President Donald Trump has been voted out of office and is set to leave the White House on January 20, 2021, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he will disappear from the right-wing media. Trump might launch his own media company, Fox News competitors like Newsmax TV and One America News would love to have him, and talk of a presidential run in 2024 is a way for the outgoing president to fire up his MAGA base. But journalist Anita Kumar, in an article published by Politico on December 14, emphasizes that Trump doesn’t have to actually run in 2024 to excite the right — all he has to do to draw attention is float the possibility.
“Donald Trump doesn’t need to run for president again,” Kumar explains. “He just needs everyone to think he is. The president’s recent discussions with those around him reveal that he sees his White House comeback deliberations as a way to earn the commodity he needs most after leaving office: attention.”
Kumar notes that long before he was elected president in 2016, Trump drew media attention by toying with the idea of a presidential run. Trump first floated the idea back in the late 1980s, and in 2021 and beyond, one way to remain in the media spotlight is to keep Americans asking the question: will or won’t he run for president in 2024? Continue reading.