Donald Trump could announce his candidacy for the 2024 election as early as this month, it’s claimed, with the former president reportedly jealous of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and keen to distract from ongoing Capitol riot hearings.  

Most candidates for presidential elections announce their run the year before, so as to minimize the time on the campaign trail, where they’ll likely face scandals and embarrassing skeletons in their closets.

But Trump, 74, is agitating to declare his intentions much sooner, according to the New York Times. 

On Friday The New York Times reported that the former president has surprised some of his advisers by saying he may declare his intentions on social media, without even informing them in advance.

Trump remains banned from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and would have to make the announcement on his much smaller network, TruthSocial. 

He is said to be aggrieved by increasing attention and compliments heaped on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Many Republicans believe DeSantis pushes the same policies that made Trump very popular – but without the divisive and unpredictable personality.  

Aides, the paper said, are scrambling to build a campaign infrastructure in time for an announcement that could come this month. 

‘Every day is different,’ one source told CNN. 

‘We get told he’s going to announce imminently, and by the afternoon that has changed.’

Another source, who previously said Trump would wait until after Labor Day, told CNN the September announcement was ‘up in the air’ and that if Trump does announce early, ‘it will be July.’

‘He’s sounding a lot more committed lately,’ added another person close to Trump.

Trump has repeatedly teased another run for the White House, even though he’d only be allowed to serve a single term. 

But the idea has been given added urgency by the surge in support for DeSantis, the 43-year-old governor of Florida.

Republican donors who have opened their wallets for Trump are now backing DeSantis as he bids to win a second term as governor of Florida , it has emerged.

Powerful GOP supporters hope DeSantis could serve two terms in office to the one Trump will have to make do with, giving him more time to push through his policies.  

New campaign filings obtained by Politico show that DeSantis has received $3.4 million from 10 donors who collectively spent $24 million on Trump’s reelection bid.

Many of those who donated had never contributed to state-level Florida elections before, and include Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus, 93, who gave DeSantis $500,000. In 2016, he was one of Donald Trump’s most generous donors, contributing $7 million.

The cash donations for a relatively small-fry election show just how seriously many big-hitting Republicans are taking DeSantis as a potential presidential candidate.

Trump told The New Yorker, in an article entitled: ‘Can Ron DeSantis displace Donald Trump as the G.O.P.’s combatant in chief?’, that he was responsible for DeSantis’s political career thanks to a 2018 endorsement credited with landing the Florida man the governor’s post. 

‘If I didn’t endorse him, he wouldn’t have won,’ Trump said.

The article said that DeSantis was sometimes described as ‘Trump with a brain’.

Asked again whether he would beat DeSantis in 2024, Trump told Newsmax: ‘I was very responsible for him getting elected.’

Big money is following DeSantis, however.

DeSantis has amassed a campaign war chest of $100 million, setting new records, and leaving him well positioned to turn those funds to 2024. 

Trump himself has already amassed a $100 million fund, through his Super PAC.

But that money is not allowed to be able to directly support a candidate, under campaign finance laws.

Some aides are urging Trump to wait, so he can use the cash freely before his official declaration. 

One R.N.C. official also pointed out that when Trump officially launched his bid, the Republican party would have to stop paying his legal bills related to an investigation by the New York attorney general. 

Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, is encouraging him to wait so he has a more complete campaign team ready to go, The New York Times said. 

Others are concerned about the impact of the January 6 hearings.

Trump himself has been watching them avidly, and giving commentary on his Truth Social network.

Lindsay Graham, the South Carolina senator, said Trump should declare swiftly, to keep him focused on policy.

‘It’s up to him if he runs or not,’ Graham told The New York Times. 

‘But the key to him being successful is comparing his policy agenda and policy successes with what is going on today.’ 

Deep breath. Are you OK? The Duke of Sussex was back in court on his second and final day of giving evidence. He entered the witness box just before 10.30am, did a little neck roll, took a sip of water and prepared for the ordeal ahead.

The prince was still in his smart suit and had swapped Tuesday’s purple tie for a snazzy silver one – but something else was different, too. Something more elusive. Did I detect a new spritz of lemon in his cocktail of complaint, a rousing grind of pepper on his ongoing beef?

It was almost as if he’d been instructed overnight to answer questions with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and stick to the script, for God’s sake. For example, he had a better response to the important question of when he had read the newspaper articles in question.

On Tuesday he repeatedly told the court he couldn’t remember, end of. Yesterday it was: ‘I can’t remember but that is to suggest that the stress has been reduced and it hasn’t been.’

Soon we were roving over evidence about his wild and crazy younger life, including an injured knee that delayed his entry to Sandhurst, his trips to lap dancing clubs, his ‘boozy playboy lifestyle’ and his relationship with Chelsy Davy.

Prince Harry – so very vague about so very much that happened back then – had a sudden illuminating jolt of memory. He argued that he did not go to a London nightclub called Amika once a month (‘I don’t believe I was there that often’) and doubted the newspaper’s version of events (‘I don’t see any quotes from the Lithuanian lapdancer who sat on my lap’).

However, we all know Harry by now. Give our guy a public platform and it won’t be long before he is complaining about his privacy. Although to be scrupulously fair, this IS a phone hacking trial and not an exercise in vengeance. Or is it?

During his cross-examination by Andrew Green KC, acting for Mirror Group Newspapers, Prince Harry revealed that he decided to bring the case after meeting lawyer David Sherborne in the south of France, sometimes known as a sunny place for shady people, but of course that is not relevant here.

Harry also revealed that part of his impetus for the lawsuit was a desire to do something about the ‘abuse and hate that was coming towards me and my wife’ in recent years. So an exercise in revenge and punishment rather than one in justice and ethics?

In his witness statement, Prince Harry grandly described himself as someone who wants to ‘save journalism as a profession’ and ‘a soldier upholding important values’. It would be simply crushing to discover that this warrior of morality was motivated, even a little bit, by less noble sentiments.

Despite his new focus, it wasn’t long before the prince was drifting far from shore again, answering the questions in his head rather than the ones he had just been asked and taking any opportunity to expound on his general grievances to the judge. ‘Doesn’t mean it is true, my lord,’ he would say. ‘I highly doubt that, my lord,’ he would add. Mr Green got a little exasperated at one point. ‘Could I just repeat what I said yesterday – this is about me asking you questions, not you asking me questions,’ he said.

‘So be it,’ sighed the KC, after another dead-end exchange with the prince. There was a discussion, yet again, about what was and what was not in the public interest. Prince Harry was asked to define the former, and gave the matter some thought. ‘A life-threatening injury?’ he suggested. ‘I’m sure there are others.’

I’m sure there are. Again and again we got a glimpse of the unique struggles of the young prince’s cloistered life, a miserable-sounding existence constrained by suspicion and privilege. He was chary of everyone and inside this corral of distrust he was ministered by people he variously described as ‘my security’, ‘my point person’ and even ‘my police’.

Sometimes you have to wonder, who on earth was looking after this lost, motherless boy? At other times, his lack of acuity is gasping.

Towards the end of the day the focus switched onto a news story about his break-up with Chelsy Davy, printed with the headline, ‘Hooray Harry’s Dumped’. ‘My Lord, this was hurtful to say the least,’ said the prince, adding that he found it ‘a little bit mean’ that such a private moment was ‘turned into a bit of a laugh.’

‘You are not suggesting that they [the newspaper] were celebrating you had been dumped,’ said Green, incredulous. ‘Yes, I am. For me,’ said Harry, touching his heart with fluttering fingers, ‘as the subject or victim of this, to see that word used in this term is hurtful.’

If only a newspaper sub-editor – or anyone with a rudimentary grasp of grammar – had been on hand to explain the difference between Hooray Harry’s Dumped and Hooray, Harry’s Dumped.

How can a man come through an expensive education without knowing the basic rules of punctuation? Or expect to single-handedly ‘save journalism’ if he doesn’t even know how a comma works?

When he had finished giving his evidence, Prince Harry took a seat in the courtroom for the rest of the day. How had it all gone? That morning, Mr Green had asked him if it was true he was brought back early from his tour of duty in Afghanistan. ‘I was evacuated, yes,’ said Prince Harry.

You could say much the same about his hours in the witness box.

Actor Jay Johnston is arrested over Jan. 6 riot after internet sleuths identified ‘Bob’s Burgers’ star in ‘attack on cops with stolen riot shield’

• Jay Johnston, 53, voiced the character Jimmy Pesto Sr on the Fox series
• He was arrested on Wednesday in Los Angeles and charged with
• The actor was ‘banned’ from Bob’s Burgers last year after the FBI shared photos of the actor at the Capitol riots 

By Germania Rodriguez Poleo For Dailymail.Com

Published: 16:49 EDT, 7 June 2023 | Updated: 17:49 EDT, 7 June 2023