OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump offered some helpful advice to fellow Republicans as the 2024 campaign cycle gets underway in earnest following the ouster last week of now-former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
In an interview with Just the News, the 45th president outlined a strategy for success moving forward.
“Two words: ‘strong and united,'” Trump told Just the News’ John Solomon during the Association of Mature American Citizens 2024 presidential election town hall series.
“We need stronger people. We have such power and we don’t use it. But the Democrats use that power. And they use it very horribly into weaponization and things that nobody has ever seen outside of a banana republic,” he added.
Just the news noted further:
The former president was referring to what he and others consider the politicization of federal agencies such as the FBI and Justice Department and a so-called “two-tiered system of justice” in which certain people are prosecuted, and others are not, depending on their religious or political affiliation.
Next week, the House is expected to elect a new speaker after California GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted Wednesday from the post by eight ultra-right Republican House members in a full floor vote.
Following McCarthy’s historic removal, Trump threw his support behind House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to become the next speaker; he is running against House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.).
“Jim is a fantastic person,” Trump told Just the News. “He’s got a tremendous career. He’s always been tough at what he did.”
“I think he’ll do well,” Trump added about Jordan. “I hope he does well. He’s got competition, as you understand, and they’re friendly with me too …. very nice people and good people. We’ll see what happens.”
Meanwhile, last week a new survey spelled more bad news for President Joe Biden while giving a huge new boost to his most likely 2024 opponent, Trump.
“A new Marquette Law School Poll national survey finds a close presidential race: former President Donald Trump receives 51% and President Joe Biden gets 48% among registered voters, while Biden has a 51% advantage over Trump’s 49% among likely voters—those who say they are certain they will vote in the presidential election,” the survey said.
However, where Trump excels is in other areas like voter enthusiasm. Also, Biden’s policies are dramatically hindering his ability to perform better in the survey.
Per the Interactive Polls account on the “X” platform, here is a summary of the polling results:
Marquette Poll: Who would handle the following issues better?
The Economy: Trump 52% (+24) Biden 28%
Border Security: Trump 52% (+24) Biden 28%
Inflation: Trump 50% (+23) Biden 27%
Creating Jobs: Trump 49% (+19) Biden 30%
Foreign Relations Trump 43% (+5) Biden 38%
Medicare and SSA Biden 39% (+2) Trump 37%
Abortion policy Biden 43% (+9) Trump 34%
Climate change Biden 44% (+20) Trump 24%
Notably, in most national surveys of issues that are the most important to Americans, ‘climate change’ and ‘abortion’ regularly rank far below other issues like ‘jobs,’ ‘the economy,’ ‘inflation,’ and ‘border security.’
Newsmax added:
Trump draws a majority 51% support among registered voters to just 48% for Biden, but Trump has an 8-point lead (54%-46%) among those “very enthusiastic” and a 6-point lead (53%-47%) among those “somewhat enthusiastic,” according to the poll.
Biden flips the results and leads Trump by 8 points (53%-45%) among those “not too/not at all enthusiastic” to vote, perhaps putting the age-old emphasis on voter turnout.
“Trump has long argued mail-in balloting, pushed by Democrats, helped outdo the voter enthusiasm component of presidential elections, giving Biden more votes than he would have otherwise received with in-person voting during the 2020 presidential election,” the report continued, adding that Newsmax TV contributor Dick Morris has pointed out that Trump had more voters show up on Election Day in 2020, but Biden won the mail-in vote.
Meanwhile, the full GOP presidential primary polling results from the survey were as follows:
Trump 56%
Florida GOP Gov. DeSantis 12%
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley 6%
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy 4%
Former Vice President Pence 4%
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., 2%
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie 1%
