At a Lincoln Day Dinner at Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump sat in between two of his most prominent heirs apparent, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
According to one attendee, Trump barely spoke to his former, and always loyal, top diplomat, spending the evening yukking it up with DeSantis instead.
“It was painfully embarrassing,” said a person who attended the event, blaming Pompeo’s “quite overt” ambitions for rubbing Trump the wrong way.
Sources close to Trump said talk of 2024 is inappropriate at this stage, with midterm elections still ahead next year and the Biden administration, in their view, running roughshod over his legacy.
Most challenging, perhaps, is how Biden’s liberal agenda appears broadly popular with voters, according to polls.
The focus right now for Florida Republicans is reelecting DeSantis in 2022, who will be at the top of a ticket with Sen. Marco Rubio slotted just below. A loss would not just hamper his chances if Trump chooses not to run again but could imperil Republicans’ efforts to retake the upper chamber.
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Still, the posturing by Republican hopefuls is hard to miss.
Pompeo has aggressively sought to boost his profile in recent months, pushing Iran sanctions on Capitol Hill and speaking in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states to vote in presidential nominating contests.
Reporters were invited to a typically private seminar featuring Pompeo in discussion with donor Peter Thiel and former Trump national security adviser Robert O’Brien about China’s Big Tech ties.
In a recent Fox News appearance, Pompeo hinted at a 2024 presidential run, saying he is “always up for a fight” and “cares deeply about America.”
When Sean Hannity responded that he didn’t “know how to interpret that” and would “take that as a strong maybe,” Pompeo laughed. “That’s perfect,” he added.
A former senior Trump campaign aide was skeptical Pompeo could rouse the base.
“I don’t think that he has the ability to raise funding and raise a grassroots army,” this person said. “He says all the right things. I mean, he wouldn’t be a terrible vice presidential pick.”
Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn is also drawing attention for his glad-handing at a slew of Trump-adjacent events, including at Club 45 on Monday, and by taking his claims of a stolen election on the road. The retired Army three-star general also has been endorsing Republican challengers to lawmakers deemed insufficiently loyal to the former president.
But he’s boosting his own profile, taking pictures with nearly every attendee at one 1,500-person event last week.
According to one source, he met Trump at Mar-a-Lago this week for a hastily pulled-together meeting.
One Trump adviser balked at a Flynn run, suggesting DeSantis is positioned light-years ahead, a sentiment that was echoed by other strategists.
“Is Mike Flynn going to be president? Absolutely not. But does that mean that Mike Flynn could not be in the next administration or looking for something on the periphery? Sure, but he’s not going to be the nominee,” one Florida Republican said.
Despite clinching a Fox News contributor contract, Pompeo also appears on the back foot after the Lincoln Day Dinner.
“The president kind of clipped his wings a little bit that night,” a person who attended the event said.
While the rift seemed apparent to guests watching the scene play out, the Trump adviser dismissed the chatter as jealousy, and a longtime GOP strategist who wasn’t at the event said it was likely overblown.
All hopefuls face the same obstacle: Trump’s reentry into the race.
One Trump adviser put the former president’s chances at another White House bid at 15%, but others think it’s more likely.
Mar-a-Lago’s resident in chief hasn’t disappeared. He is regularly spotted at his private club in Palm Beach and at fundraising dinners. He’ll be in Naples on Friday night, a location second to Mar-a-Lago as the party’s “biggest ATM machine,” one person said.
“I think that Trump really does want to run. The question is whether or not the stars align for him,” this person added. Raising eyebrows, the former commander in chief did not rule out a Trump-DeSantis 2024 ticket in an interview this week with Maria Bartiromo.
More than anything, speculation around Trump running again is a boost to DeSantis, according to this strategist. He explained that it takes the heat off the governor, adding that “people’s brains split.”
Without it, “I think we’d be having a 60 Minutes story every week,” he said.
DeSantis has endeared himself to conservatives by bucking the media narrative on COVID-19 lockdowns and mask mandates.
“That made him a hero. Plus, when it came to executive orders in his state, he pushed back on social media and Big Tech,” this person said. He has also threaded the needle on transgender sports legislation, in part due to the state’s college sports prowess.
“Is the NCAA going to boycott the University of Florida, Florida State, and the University of Miami, as well as UCF? Good luck with that,” a source said, referring to the University of Central Florida, which has emerged with its Sunshine State cousins as a top-tier college football program. The sport is one of the NCAA’s few revenue-producing sports, especially in football-crazed southern states like Florida.
Democrats, meanwhile, “are building a Death Star” to take on the governor. There’s only one problem, sources say: They don’t have anyone to run it.
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“You’ve heard Val Demings, you’ve heard Charlie Crist, you’ve heard Nikki Fried,” he said. “They just don’t know that they have the right person to do that.”
One possible pick is Gwen Graham, recently tapped by Biden to be assistant secretary of education for legislation and congressional affairs. A former Democratic congresswoman from Tallahassee, Graham is also the daughter of former Florida Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham.
