Analyst: Midterm elections could determine Trump's future in the party

Former US President Donald Trump is still playing an active role in deciding the fate of the Republican Party, according to American political analyst and activist Myles Hoenig.

In an interview with Press TV on Sunday, Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, said the upcoming midterm elections in the US could be a make-or-break moment for Trump's future in the party.

“It’s never too early to run for president. And if you’re a former president or nominee, or even a vice president or nominee, one’s chances are greatly enhanced, until there’s opposition. Vice President Gore was a shoe-in until Nader started to run from the left, taking the issues away from him which he didn’t recover until the end, when it was too late,” he said.

“It didn’t help that he lost the race due to a judicial coup d’etat. Vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman also had a head start but more ‘progressive’ candidates surpassed him in the polls and he dropped out early,” he added.

“So for former President Trump to start running at this early stage is to be expected. Like Gore, he has already served in the Executive Branch but unlike Gore, he actually has a loyal following. In spite of his appeal to a large segment of the Republican Party, his attendance at the upcoming Michigan rally, preceding an April primary, could easily propel him to the nomination for himself or deflate his chances if his chosen candidates do poorly,” he noted.

“So far, in spite of some other electoral setbacks, there are getting to be ‘enough’ party loyalists who are making overtures to take him on, but all hoping he just goes away. DeSantis of Florida has a fairly decent chance, being the governor of an important Electoral College state. Another would be Larry Hogan, the popular Republican governor of Democratic state Maryland, who’s term-limited from running again,” he said.

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“He has been an outspoken Trump denier for many years. As a candidate and as a person, Trump is predictable. We know that he will rail against the election he believes was stolen from him, which it wasn’t. How far went in his rhetoric this past Saturday could also be a breaking point. For his loyalist, it’s red meat and it’ll energize them until November of 2024,” the analyst said.

“For mainstream Republicans it just might serve to turn more of them off to him, opening up the field to other candidates. One wild card, related to this event is the national bi-election in 2022. It isn’t just in Michigan that he is making endorsements, over the objections of Party leaders who would prefer neutrality, but throughout the country. His track record of wins or losses could serve him well or put an end to the nonsense of this candidate,” he stated.

Recent opinion polls have depicted a gloomy landscape for Democrats as they gear up for the 2022 midterm elections.

A recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll found that Republicans maintain a clear lead on the congressional ballot over Democrats as Joe Biden's approval rating plunges to a new low of 38 percent.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans, 64 percent, say they do not want Biden to run for a second term in 2024, including a troubling 28 percent of Democrats.

Biden has proven a disappointment for many who voted him into office last year, with 16 percent of those surveyed saying he has done a worse job as president than they expected. Overall, 46 percent of Americans hold that view.

More worrying for Biden, another new survey by the Emerson College has found that Trump would beat the incumbent by two points – 45 to 43 percent - if the election was held today.

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