Trump’s 2023 plans include golf, potentially a new book, and little else
Christian Datoc
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Former President Donald Trump heads into the new year as the sole top-tier candidate of either party to declare a 2024 bid for the White House, but that doesn’t mean his calendar will be jam-packed like in campaigns past.
Trump, 76, has yet to make a public appearance away from Mar-a-Lago since launching his third presidential campaign back on Nov. 18, and his political apparatus has yet to announce any events for the new year.
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Steven Cheung, a veteran Trump campaign official and one of his chief advisers for 2024, has suggested that Trump’s early announcement was at least partially geared toward allowing the campaign ample time to staff up ahead of his chief political rivals, President Joe Biden and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), both of whom are expected to declare their 2024 candidacy sometime in the spring of 2023.
“We’re doing structure, and we’re doing people. We’ve hired some great people, who will be announced,” Trump himself added in an interview with New York magazine. “A lot of money is coming in.”
However, numerous former Trump officials, all of whom worked on past campaigns or in the administration, have previously told the Washington Examiner that most Trumpworld veterans have no desire to reenlist for 2024, forcing the former president to flesh out his operation with “the B or C or even F team, let’s be honest,” one former Trump official stated.
Another former Trump campaign official, when asked about the lack of events announced so far by the 2024 team, suggested that a seemingly “never-ending parade of terrible headlines” has Trump “running scared.”
“He’s not oblivious to everything going on,” that person explained. “That’s why you see him lash out on Truth [Social], then show up at someone’s wedding at Mar-a-Lago. He just wants to tell his side of the story, and the fans at his club scratch that itch.”
“He just goes, plays golf, comes back, and f***s off. He has retreated to the golf course and to Mar-a-Lago,” another adviser similarly told New York magazine. “His world has gotten much smaller. His world is so, so small.”
Trump’s nonexistent public persona is likely a factor of the looming threat of indictments from the Department of Justice and special counsel Jack Smith.
A former war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, Smith was tasked by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November with overseeing the DOJ’s two investigations into Trump: one examining his behavior on and in the lead-up to Jan. 6 and a second involving his handling of classified documents after leaving the presidency.
Two former Trump officials tell the Washington Examiner that Smith, who has already subpoenaed Trumpworld figures in every state the former president claimed featured election fraud in 2020, drove home the “actual” possibility Trump could face criminal charges.
“This isn’t some cockamamie play trial run by Liz Cheney and Democrats,” one such official told the Washington Examiner.
Still, ongoing legal woes and a fledgling presidential campaign won’t stop the brander-in-chief from launching new moneymaking ventures.
Two Trumpworld figures pointed to the former president’s recent launch of $99 limited edition Trump-branded NFTs, artificially scarce digital objects, which “sold like hot cakes.”
Other Trump confidants told CNN that the former president plans to publish a new book, his second since leaving the White House, featuring letters and photos Trump has exchanged with celebrities and politicians over the years.
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The book is expected to be published by Donald Trump Jr.’s Winning Team Publishing, yet Sergio Gor, the former Trump adviser who runs the shop, has not commented on public reports regarding its release.