OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump sounded a dire note during a rally in Iowa late last week while at the same time appearing to drop a big hint about his political future.
Speaking to supporters in Dubuque, Trump said 2024 would be a “final battle” to try and save the country from the clutches of far-left countercultural Democrats.
“We are a failing nation. We are a nation in decline,” Trump said.
“2024 is our final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government. They want to go to war with everybody,” he added, per The Western Journal.
“We will drive out the globalists,” Trump noted further. “We will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists, and we will throw off the sick political class that truly hates our country. We will route the fake news media. We will defeat crooked Joe Biden, and we will end illegal immigration once and for all, just as we had it three years ago.”
Earlier in the day, during a rally in the Iowa town of Maquoketa, Trump predicted that next year will be a “victory for the ages.”
“You know, I used to talk about 2016, that 2016 is the biggest election of our lifetime. And I meant it 100 percent,” Trump said. “But we are going to make this country stronger and better and more beautiful than ever before.
“Not just get it back, we’re going to make it better than ever before, but we have to win this election,” he continued.
According to a YouGov/Yahoo News poll released last week, Biden and Trump are tied at 44 percent among registered voters, with 7 percent undecided and 4 percent not voting. That suggests that support for Biden has dwindled as Trump’s support has gradually increased — in the midst of four criminal indictments, The Hill reported.
The previous poll, conducted by YouGov/Yahoo News last month, found Biden to have a slight lead over Trump, with the current president polling at 47 percent to the former president’s 41 percent. Now, as questions about Biden’s age swirl and House Republicans prepare to launch an impeachment investigation, the president faces even more obstacles as he approaches 2024.
According to the survey results, 77 percent of Americans consider Biden’s age to be a minor or major issue, while 64 percent believe the same of Trump. Americans also believe Biden is less qualified to serve in office than Trump, with only 27% believing he can serve another term.
The poll also found that Biden’s approval rating was 38 percent, slightly higher than its all-time low of 35 percent in August 2022. Despite positive economic indicators, only 34% of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the situation.
Trump has a load of legal problems to deal with, but he also has a massive amount of support among the American electorate.
In fact, according to one pollster, the amount of support given what he’s dealing with is “truly unprecedented.”
Polling experts who spoke to The Daily Caller last month claimed that Trump’s commanding lead in most surveys is so overwhelming that it must be disheartening for the rest of the GOP contenders.
The outlet noted that the current Republican primary cycle is unlike any other, with a former president leading the race, holding a substantial advantage in the polls, and facing competition from his former vice president. Additionally, Trump carries the weight of two federal indictments.
Polling analysts interviewed by the DC emphasized the significant contrast between this current GOP primary season and previous cycles, arguing that it is challenging to draw direct comparisons in recent memory.
“This GOP primary is truly unprecedented because Trump is not technically an incumbent, but Republican voters seem to be treating him as at least a quasi-incumbent,” Kyle Kondik, a polling analyst and managing editor for the nonpartisan Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told the outlet.
“This primary is similar to 2016 in the sense that the field is large, meaning that it’ll be hard for a non-Trump to consolidate the non-Trump supporters,” he noted further.
