Former President Donald Trump is getting another round of bad news related to his 2024 aspirations.
For the second day in a row, a new poll is being released which shows Trump trailing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
A poll from The Wall Street Journal released on Wednesday shows DeSantis leading the former president 52% to 38% in a hypothetical 2024 Republican primary matchup.
It also found that 84% of Republicans have a favorable view of the Florida governor, while 71% said the same of Trump.
Meanwhile, 43% of all registered voters have a favorable view of DeSantis while 36% have a favorable view of the 45th president.
DeSantis’ favorable rating among all registered voters is tied with President Joe Biden’s.
The Journal’s poll surveyed 1,500 registered voters from Dec. 3-7 and has a margin of error of 6 percentage points.
NEW @WSJ poll: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis beats former President Donald Trump, 52% to 38%, among likely GOP primary voters in a hypothetical contest (86% view DeSantis favorably). h/t @McCormickJohn https://t.co/sgfnhdckf5
— Ken Thomas (@KThomasDC) December 14, 2022
It comes a day after a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll also found DeSantis leading Trump.
The two polls, a month after Trump announced his new presidential campaign, seem to show he could be in trouble heading into the primary season. He has already caused some headaches for the Republican Party by dining with a white nationalist, and calling for the termination of parts of the Constitution.
He later claimed he did not know the white nationalist and insisted he did not call for the termination of parts of the Constitution. But since announcing his campaign, he has not been holding massive rallies. He has not returned to Twitter where his posts would probably get more attention. And he has not really been seen on major news networks.
Once it became clear Trump was going to run again, there was kind of a collective groan at the thought of launching right into the 2024 presidential election without a breather after the midterms. Perhaps Trump thinks Americans need a break from elections. But then his decision to announce his campaign so early just looks odd — more strange than it already did.
It is possible he will begin holding rallies after the holiday season and get his 2016 groove back and shore up his support. But only time will tell.
However, one important note for Republicans who want to get rid of Trump is that these polls are only head-to-head matchups between him and DeSantis. And the results would probably look different if there were multiple candidates in the polls.
In fact, Trump shared a Politico/Morning Consult poll on Tuesday which found him leading DeSantis by 18 points in a primary field with 11 candidates.
The Florida governor currently appears to be Republicans’ best shot at beating Trump. Though it is possible some story will come and reveal an atrocious fact about DeSantis’ past that will tank his chances, or he’ll flounder during debates and his support will collapse to 1%.
But if Republicans want to beat Trump in 2024, they cannot be hanging on hoping for their moment while coming in fourth or fifth place in the primaries and splitting the vote. They’re going to have to do what the 2016 candidates did not, but what Democrats in 2020 did, and identify one clear alternative to rally around. And the candidates who are not that alternative will need to drop out quickly.
