A former Trump administration official this weekend floated the possibility of Michelle Obama succeeding President Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic nominee, warning that the former first lady would be a formidable opponent to the GOP. 

‘If [Democrats] were to run Michelle Obama, that would put us in a very difficult position,’ former Trump aide Monica Crowley said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando on Saturday.

‘They’d reach for a candidate who is completely plausible, very popular, and immune to criticism.’

Crowley, who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Public Affairs under Donald Trump, appeared at a panel discussion alongside former White House physician-turned-House Rep. Ronny Jackson, conservative activist Jack Posobiec and California lawyer Kurt Schlichter during the multi-day event.

After tossing the popular Democratic first lady’s hat in the ring, Crowley explained how Obama would have been positioning herself to mount a White House bid in the years after her husband Barack Obama left the White House in early 2017.

‘When you think about her positioning, she spoke as a [Democratic National Convention] keynote speaker in 2020,’ Crowley claimed.

‘She wrote her autobiography and did a 50-city tour, she has massive Netflix and Spotify deals, and she’s got a voting rights group alongside Stacey Abrams.’

Obama’s memoir ‘Becoming’ sold more than two million copies in various forms within 15 days of publication, quickly becoming a bestseller.  

It’s a testament to the Harvard-educated lawyer’s popularity, particularly among Democrats. 

She was voted as the top most admired woman in YouGov’s global survey three years in a row, most recently winning the number one spot in December 2021. 

And while Obama has publicly dismissed the idea of running for her husband’s old job, a recent Hill-HarrisX poll placed her high on the list of potential candidates in 2024 should Biden choose not to run.

The president, who’s so far said he’s running for re-election, would be 81 years old at the start of his second term.

The late November 2021 survey found Obama second in a list of likely Democrat candidates, just behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

But on Saturday, former Trump aide Crowley highlighted Harris’ gaffe-laden first year. She suggested Obama would be a good alternative so as not to alienate black women, among the Democratic Party’s most loyal voters, according to Business Insider. 

Obama has long been admired by Democrats and even Independents, and would have immediate name recognition should she cast a 2024 bid.

Despite her insistence that she won’t run, Crowley warned her crowd at the Republican event to be ready for it and compared Obama’s profile-enhancing activism that put her back into the public eye after leaving the White House to the actions of Hillary Clinton — another rumored potential 2024 candidate.

‘For all of these people who say, “Michelle Obama isn’t political, they’re making too much money now,” keep a very close eye on her because her trajectory is exactly what Barack Obama did before he ran for president and what Bill and Hillary Clinton both did,’ Crowley said.

She reasserted:  ‘I think if she were to run, that would be a very difficult situation for us.’

Obama famously said during a leadership conference in Boston in 2018 that to run for president, ‘my sense is that, first of all, you have to want the job.’

She went even further to say that she ‘never had the passion for politics,’ adding: ‘I just happened to be married to somebody who has the passion for politics, and he drug me kicking and screaming into the arena.’

But despite her claimed distaste for running for office, Obama has waded into the political arena several times — to a warm reception.

Obama was seen as a key asset for her husband’s successful 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, including a highly praised speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

She also delivered an impassioned speech endorsing Biden in 2020, claiming he was the only one who could ‘put an end to this chaos’ of the Trump administration.

Most recently, Obama waded into November’s midterm elections, throwing her weighty influence and her group When We All Vote behind an effort to register 1 million new people for the ballot box this year.

In late December, a potential Obama 2024 campaign got backing from an unlikely ally — podcast host Joe Rogan.

‘She’s great, she’s articulate, she’s intelligent, she’s the wife of the best president that we have had in our lifetime,’ Rogan said. ‘She can win.’ 

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump laid down a marker to other possible Republican 2024 runners by winning 59 percent support of CPAC attendees.

The annual straw poll is seen as a key indicator of who is favored by the party base.

Trump’s win was no surprise — but he took five percentage points more than last year — with Governor Ron DeSantis, who gave a rousing speech at the gathering on Thursday, in second with 28 percent. 

That left the rest of the field as rank outsiders, with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo taking two percent and Vice President Mike Pence one percent – along side Nikki Haley, Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem, and Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.

But CPAC’s status as a gathering of hardline conservatives tends to skew the results towards the Trumpist wing of the party.

If Trump were not running, DeSantis takes 61 percent.

And the Republican Party is already cashing in on the chances of Michelle Obama being their opponent.

Two January fundraising emails from the National Republican Senatorial Committee were sent to donors touting the possibility of another Obama in the White House.

‘Left-wing Democrats KNOW they are going to LOSE their Majority in Congress this November, so they want to bring out an OBAMA to save them in 2024,’ one email obtained by Punchbowl News read. 

The second stated: ‘Rumors are spreading like wildfire that a certain someone, someone who already spent 8 YEARS in the White House, is thinking of running for PRESIDENT in 2024.’ 

Sen. Mitt Romney is predicting Trump will be the GOP‘s nominee in 2024 if he runs.

The Utah Republican – who twice voted to impeach former President Donald Trump – made the statement following the victory by Trump-backed candidate J.D. Vance in the Ohio Republican primary for Senate.

He will succeed Sen. Rob Portman, a more conventional establishment Republican who nevertheless immediately threw his support to Vance following his win Tuesday.  

‘I don’t delude myself into thinking I have a big swath of the Republican Party,’ said Romney, who was the party’s presidential nominee in 2012 and was defeated by President Barack Obama. 

‘It’s hard to imagine anything that would derail his support,’ he said, in comments reported by Axios. ‘So if he wants to become the nominee in ‘24, I think he’s very likely to achieve that,’ Romney said.

‘He’s the leader of the party, that’s clear … If he decides to run, he will be the nominee,’ Romney said. 

Romeny’s comments are hardly out of the mainstream when it comes to political observers. 

A ABC News / Washington Post poll this week found 60 per cent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents think Republican leaders should follow Trump, with just 34 per cent saying they should lead the party in a different direction. That comes in a survey where a 52 percent overall majority said Trump should be charged with crimes over January 6.

There have been other demonstrations of Trump’s power through his sway in primaries and in the way other leading Republicans have deferred to him. 

 Trump through his support to Vance in the three-way primary, and his son Donald Trump, Jr. campaigned with Vance. Trump-alligned tech investor Peter Thiel poured millions into the race.

Vance repeatedly praised Trump after condemning him in the past, and took up his attacks on government officials he called ‘corrupt.’

Immediately after his win, Portman, who had backed rival Jane Timken, said he supported Vance’s reelection. 

Agreeing with Romney’s take was Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who was photographed raising his fist to protesters outside the Capitol on Jan. 6th.

‘He’s the leader of the party, that’s clear … If he decides to run, he will be the nominee,’ he said, Politico reported. Hawley is himself considered a potential candidate for president.

Romney said last year he wouldn’t vote for Trump if he is the GOP nominee. 

But Senate Minority Leader said in February he would ‘absolutely’ support Trump if he is the nominee. 

That came despite McConnell accusing Trump of ‘disgraceful dereliction of duty’ on Jan. 6.

On Wednesday President Joe Biden called MAGA ‘the most extreme political organization in American history,’ White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would continue to make the case against it around the country in the coming weeks.

Donald Trump gave one of his latest signal about running for president again in 2024, saying it would be ‘very hard’ for him not to run again.

The former president spoke with podcast hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on Friday, telling them he had already made a decision, but would not say when he would announce it, Mediate reported. 

‘Knowing what you know and seeing what you see of Joe Biden, how do you not run in 2024?’ Travis asked Trump.  

‘Very hard for me not to run, to be honest,’ Trump replied. ‘And also, the polls indicate that, from the Republican standpoint, it would be easy.’ 

Earlier this month, Trump told New York Magazine that he had already made up his mind about a run, and that the question he was now mulling was whether he’d pull the trigger before or after the November midterm elections. 

The podcast episode on Friday covered many topics, but kept circling back to Trump’s decision about 2024. 

‘There are some things we just have to ask you, Mr. President, ‘ Sexton asked. ‘If you’re gonna announce, when are you gonna announce? Can you tell us that?’ 

Trump said it all comes down to: ‘Is it before or after?’

‘Well, if I’m gonna announce, I’ll have to make a decision, is it going to be…? You know, two words: Is it before or after? And there are reasons for both. Some very good things about earlier. There’s some very good things about later. 

The way I look at it is if I announce early and we do well, I’ll get credit for having done well — as much as you’ll get ’cause the press won’t give you credit anyway. If I do poorly, I’ll get absolutely… It’ll be horrible. But if I announce later and we do well, I won’t get any criticized.’

‘In fact, if I announce later and we don’t do well, whether it’s before or after, they’ll blame me. In other words, if we do badly, they’ll blame me no matter what even if I had nothing to do with it. So I don’t know. I will make a decision.’

Some Republican strategists fear that if Trump throws his hat in the ring before the midterms, it could upset the GOP’s chances of winning back majorities in the House and the Senate. 

‘I’ll make a decision fairly soon,’ Trump said. ‘And my… I must tell you — and I think I can say this — in my mind, I’ve already made the decision.’ 

The former president spoke on the podcast Friday from  his Bedminster golf club, where he is controversially hosting a Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament.

Some athletes refuse to take part in protest against Saudi Arabia‘s track record of human rights abuses, and the event has been eviscerated by the families of 9/11 victims, in light of a recently declassified government report which suggests there were links between the terrorists involved in the attack and the Saudi Arabian government.  

On Saturday, many of those families gathered at the local library near Trump’s club in order to protest. 

They couldn’t get near the actual event – which was swarming with Secret Service. 

Despite their tears, the atmosphere at Bedminster was jovial. Trump was spotted driving around on a golf buggy, waving to his fans and cracking jokes with the pros taking part. 

Yesterday, Trump defended hosting the series, telling reporters at the course: ‘I’ve known these people for a long time in Saudi Arabia and they have been friends of mine.

As for 9/11, he said: ‘Nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately. And they should have. As to the maniacs that did that horrible thing to our city, to our country, to the world, so nobody’s really been there.’

Later, as he headed off the first tee, Trump even hinted that he would run for the White House once more.

‘You’re going to be so happy. We’ll let you know pretty soon,’ he said before asking where the reporter was from. ‘They just did a story on me, beautiful,’ he said. ‘The first one in five years. Front page, tell them I appreciate it.’

Donald Trump blasted President Joe Biden‘s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan while dropping his strongest hint yet that of a potential 2024 presidential bid.

The former president told fellow Republicans ‘the time is coming’ for him to make a formal announcement about his next bid for the White House.

Trump said he believes ‘people are going to be very happy’ with his decision while noting that America has ‘lost everything’ under Biden’s leadership. 

His proclamation comes as a prominent GOP donor who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns told DailyMail.com he does not believe former president will run for president again.

Instead, the donor said he could see Trump anointing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to take on the national MAGA torch. 

Trump, giving the keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas this weekend, confirmed he will be making his plans to run for office public in the near future.

‘It’s certainly not a very long period, the time is coming,’ Trump said Saturday when Fox News asked when Republicans could expect a formal announcement.

‘I think people are going to be very happy, our country has never been in a position like this, we’ve lost everything.’

He argued the nation was facing both domestic and foreign policy crises, stating America lost its ‘prestige’ when Biden withdrew US troops from Afghanistan last year.

‘Our country has never been at a worse point,’ Trump said. 

‘They gave away $85 billion worth of equipment, dead soldiers, you still have Americans over there probably as hostages, eventually will be hostages, there has never been a time like this.’

He also claimed the US is a ‘nation that allowed Russia to devastate a country, Ukraine, killing hundreds of thousands of people, and it will only get worse.’

Trump complained that Biden turned ‘the safest border in US history by far’ into ‘the worst border ever in history.’

 ‘Just last month, an illegal alien here in Texas was indicted for the cold blooded murders of four elderly women throughout the state. And he’s been linked to the deaths of at least 24 people,’ he said.

‘What we do in the next few months and the next few years will determine whether American civilization will collapse and fail or whether it will thrive, frankly like never before.’ 

He added: ‘We’ll be making an announcement in the not too distant future.’ 

Trump also commented on the 2020 election, which he continues to maintain was ‘rigged and stolen.’

‘The election was rigged and stolen, and now our country is being systematically destroyed. And everybody knows it. … I ran twice and won twice,’ he declared. 

‘America is on the edge of an abyss. And our movement is the only force on Earth that can save it. We have to seize this opportunity to deal with the radical left socialists and fascists.’

His remarks came shortly after the CPAC unveiled a poll showing the former president as an ‘overwhelming favorite’ for the 2024 Republican nomination.

Trump captured nearly 70 percent of the ballots cast at the conference. DeSantis was a distant second at 23.7 percent. 

Since leaving office, Trump has remained active within the Republican party, including having endorsed a long list of candidates for all levels of government – local, state and even the US Senate. 

However, some analysts suspect that Trump may actually endorse DeSantis in 2024 instead of running for office himself. 

Dallas businessman Doug Deason spoke to DailyMail.com’s senior political reporter, Rob Crilly, in the offices of his financial empire in Dallas shortly before the former president arrived to speak at CPAC. 

Although, Trump delighted the crowd by trailing the idea of a 2024 run, Deason said the former president had a lot to lose by running. 

‘I think Donald Trump is enjoying life,’ he said. ‘And I think that he is in a position as the power broker. 

‘He’s the kingmaker and why would he want to go back and get the crap beat out of him all the time, and have all the responsibility and not be building his empire?

‘He’s had to go back and help rebuild it and you know, why let it deteriorate? 

‘Why would it fall apart again? Because he’s just gonna get attacked just like he was.

‘And he can be the kingmaker without being the king.’

Trump retains a strong hold on the grassroots of the Republican Party.

So Deason’s comments will be seen as a hint to the former president that powerful party backers would rather see him step aside rather than risk defeat. 

Deason was a key player in helping Trump secure Texas. He was co-chair of the state’s Trump Victory fund in 2020 and in 2016 he and his father Darwin Deason donated more than $900,000 to help elect Trump and other Republicans.

This time around, he said he was not turning his back on Trump, who he said would still likely win the Republican nomination if he decided to run. 

But he talked up the appeal of DeSantis and his wife Casey. 

‘I think Ron DeSantis would be Donald Trump without all the baggage.

‘I mean Donald J. Trump had the best policies of any president in my lifetime, including President Reagan. 

‘But you know he could be petty about things, and he wouldn’t let things go. And you know, you love it and hate it.’

Deason has held fundraisers for DeSantis as he campaigns for another term as Florida governor. 

43-year-old DeSantis’s emergence on the national scene has triggered talk that he could represent a changing of the generational guard. 

His efforts to keep Florida open through the pandemic and his leading role in the nation’s culture wars have kept him in the headlines.

As a result, polls consistently place him second to Trump (albeit a distant one) when Republicans are asked who they want as their nominee in 2024.

Deason, who advised Trump on criminal justice reform, said DeSantis would be a more inclusive leader.

‘He’ll sit and listen and let people engage, and he won’t dominate a conversation,’ he said, contrasting that approach with Trump.  ‘I think Ron would be a wonderful president.’

Hillary Clinton said ‘extremist’ Republicans have a plan underway to steal the 2024 presidential election in video urging Americans to vote for Democratic legislatures in their states.

The two-minute clip urged Americans to look past the 2022 midterms and turn out to vote in their local election, because she claims the conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court might give state legislatures the power to overturn results.

‘Right-wing extremists already have a plan to literally steal the next presidential election – and they’re not making a secret of it,’ Clinton alleged.

The failed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate did not provide any proof of these plans or examples of Republicans conspiring to ‘steal’ the 2024 election. 

The video was put out on Twitter by the progressive group Indivisible Guide, which is running an initiative aimed at promoting progressive candidates in local state races on a website called Crush the Coup.

While the group says Democrats winning the midterms is ‘critical’, it also says they need to be focused on the larger issues of ‘fighting MAGA Republicans at the state level.’

Crush the Coup’s website homepage reads in huge capital lettering: ‘MAGA has a plan to steal the election in 2024. We have to stop them, today.’

It further claims that Democrats need to focus on winning 29 local seats in six swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Clinton scoffed when claiming the prospect of Republicans trying to challenge the results of the next presidential election is ‘keeping me up at night’ and said that allowing GOP legislatures to control states is a ‘threat to Democracy.’

‘The right-wing controlled Supreme Court may be poised to rule on giving state legislatures – yes you heard me correctly – state legislatures the power to overturn presidential elections,’ the former Secretary of State said.

On January 6, 2021, 147 Republicans in the House and Senate objected to the results of the 2020 presidential election, while the vast majority of Congress voted to codify the outcome as a victory for President Joe Biden.

Six Republicans in the Senate and 121 in the House backed objections to certify Arizona’s electoral outcome while 128 in the House and seven in the Senate objected to Pennsylvania’s outcome.

Any Republicans who still question the outcome of the 2020 presidential election have been dubbed ‘election deniers’, even though Democrats have asked questions – and continue to question – the outcome of some previous elections.

Now, Clinton is questioning results a full two years before an election was even held, despite her claims that Republicans pushing election fraud claims are helping push the Kremlin’s agenda. 

Clinton said in June 2021 elected officials suggesting the 2020 election was stolen or conducted unfairly are aiding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to undermine American democracy.

‘We never thought we had to worry about domestic enemies. We never thought we had to worry about people who didn’t believe in our democracy,’ Clinton said during an MSNBC interview at the time.

‘And sadly, what we’ve seen over the last four years and particularly since the election is that we have people in our own country who are doing Putin’s work,’ she continued. ‘They are doing his work to sow distrust, to sow divisiveness.’

Indivisible Guide is a progressive group that formed in response to Donald Trump’s election in 2016, but calls the former president a ‘symptom of a sick democracy, not its cause.’

In Clinton’s video, she said that Republicans are on a mission to make sure that neither the popular vote or the Electoral College results do not determine the outcome of the election. She also slammed the Electoral College as outdated. 

Clinton won the popular vote in the 2016 prudential election by nearly 3 million votes – but Trump emerged the victor by winning the Electoral College count by 74 votes. 

In 2008, Clinton lost the Democratic presidential primary election to eventual winner Barack Obama. She won the nomination in 2016, becoming the first woman to run for president under a major party. She lost to Trump. 

‘The 2024 presidential election could be decided not by the popular vote or even the anachronistic Electoral College but by state legislatures, many of them Republican-controlled,’ Clinton said.

She then promoted Indivisible Guide’s Crush the Coup campaign.

The group details that the U.S. faces two fundamental problems, that U.S. democracy is ‘rigged’ in favor of the white and wealthy and that ‘an alliance of white nationalists and the ultra-rich’ has emerged in the last decade to try and cling to power.

‘That’s how we ended up with Trump,’ they claim.