No, America, there will likely be no break from politics after Tuesday’s results.
That was the takeaway from Donald Trump’s announcement Monday that he can be making a “very big announcement” — almost actually of a 3rd White House run — next week at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida.
“I’m terrified,” said Liz Lambert, 57, a marketing manager in Scottsdale, Arizona, clutching a coffee cup as she headed to work after casting her ballot at a polling site in Phoenix on Tuesday. “This country has been through enough. We’d like stability and maturity and leadership.”
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Walking out behind her just a number of minutes later, Vito Corso, 58, a retired business owner originally from California, said he saw the announcement coming and believed one other Trump run for the White House will likely be “a very good thing.”
“I believe he did a very good thing the last time, and I believe he’ll do the correct thing this time — again,” Corso said.
At polling sites across the country, voters Tuesday reacted with a polarized mixture of apprehension, disdain, relief and elation on the news.
In Warren, Michigan, Mike Smith, 58, who voted for Trump in 2016, said he has been anxiously awaiting his return to office.
“I hope he comes back earlier than 2024,” said Smith, who votes Republican. “I still don’t accept 2020. Don’t call me an election denier, either. Just like the man or not, this country was cruising on all cylinders when he was in office. And if you happen to do, that’s your right, but I don’t think it’s intellectually honest.”
Rick Lombardo, a member of the Democratic State Committee within the Wissinoming section of northeast Philadelphia, said a part of him can be indifferent to an announcement that Trump was running again. But he also argued that Trump had damaged the country.
“He unleashed the dogs of hate, and now we’re coping with that,” Lombardo said. “If he desires to run that’s his perfect right, but I hope he loses and loses bad.”
In Haymarket, Virginia, Gloria Ugbaja, 47, who works in health care management, called the news a straightforward distraction. She declined to discover her political leanings, only saying that she votes for “the lesser of the 2,” a reference to the phrase “lesser of the 2 evils.”
“Whether he tries to run or not, it not directly doesn’t affect what the typical American has to do on a every day basis,” she said.
Trump has long teased a possible third campaign for president. At recent rallies for Republican candidates in heated battleground races, he has spent much of his time talking up his achievements as president, painting an image of a nation in chaos since he left office and denouncing the handful of investigations now underway against him.
In Ohio on Monday, Trump foreshadowed his announcement and overshadowed J.D. Vance, the Republican Senate candidate he was there to advertise. “I’m going to be making a really big announcement on Nov. 15 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” he said in the ultimate minutes of his 100-minute speech.
Throughout the midterm campaign, Republican candidates have been running in Trump’s mold across the country, advancing his lies that the 2020 election was stolen and ratcheting up his rhetoric against immigrants in addition to racial history, gender and sex education in schools. Many hard-fought races could prove a test of the endurance of his brand of no-holds-barred politics.
Amid this landscape, some advisers urged the previous president to attend on announcing his run until after Tuesday’s election. Other Republicans have expressed support for other potential presidential contenders, including Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Back outside a polling station in northeast Philadelphia on Monday, Dennis Maragliano, 81, said he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, and would accomplish that again in 2024 if Trump becomes the Republican nominee for president.
But Maragliano said he would like that DeSantis turn out to be the GOP nominee because he has concerns about Trump’s political style.
“I just like the kid from Florida — DeSantis,” Maragliano said. “He could be a junior Trump, but he’s got a little bit bit more decorum.”
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