TWO SUCCESSFUL GOP GOVERNORS DECLINE TO RUN FOR PRESIDEN T

holds decisive advantages across almost every demographic group and region and in every ideological wing of the party, the Times survey found, as Republican voters seemed to ignore or minimise concerns about his expanding legal jeopardy. Trump led in this poll by wide margins among men and women, younger and older voters, moderates and conservatives, those who went to college and those who didn’t, and in cities, suburbs and rural areas, the Times reported. One voter from rural Virginia told a Times reporter that “DeSantis, I have high hopes. But as long as Trump’s there, Trump’s the man.”

Trump isn’t just dominating the news. On blogs and in whispered conversations, he dominates in similar fashion. Here are a couple of the rumors currently flying around in Washington backrooms, on patios (when the heat abates) and on numerous blogs: Remember 30 months ago, soon after Donald Trump finally agreed to vacate the White House and fly back to Palm Beach? Remember when Saudi

Arabian crown prince and prime minister Mohammed bin Salman reportedly overruled his advisers on the board of a Saudi sovereign wealth fund and allotted $2 billion to a new investment fund started by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner? The same Kushner whose financial travails in real estate in New York City had him facing a huge default on a Manhattan office tower he had incautiously purchased? Guess what MBS got in return for his $2 billion? A trove of secret documents stolen from the White House by Trump! Or how about this one?

Trump, still in the process of bilking his innocent and misguided supporters out of millions of small-contribution dollars and using their financial support to pay his legal fees to the reported tune of $40 million so far, is secretly amassing his illgot wealth in Palm Beach. After he is convicted in the middle of next year’s presidential campaign, he will appeal. That will push the legal process initiated by special prosecutor Jack Smith past the 2024 election in which Trump will inevitably lose. But by the time he does lose, he’ll have loaded his own jet with cash, and he’ll take off for a foreign land with no extradition treaty with the US.

Just a couple of nations in that latter category are Saudi Arabia and Russia. More attractive alternatives might include Brazil, whose own extradition treaty with the US dates from 1961 but whose practical implementation has sometimes proven to be problematical for American law enforcement.

IN THE shadows of the Trump public relations phenomenon, Republican power brokers continue to wring their hands and hope for someone – anyone, almost – to emerge as a credible alternative candidate for president next year.

It won’t be Larry Hogan. And it won’t be Brian Kemp. Hogan is a popular former two-term GOP governor in Maryland, one of the bluest states in the country. There was early speculation that he would run as a reasonable, centrist alternative to Trump in Republican primaries next year. But Hogan recently said he would not run as a Republican.

“I finished my eight years as governor with a 77 percent approval rating.

Highest in the country. It was over 70 with Democrats, independents, and Republicans,” Hogan told Politico, the respected on-line political journal. “Of course, I’m not well known across the country. But you’ve got to run a race to see what it would look like.”

There has been much speculation about Hogan running on a third-party ticket. He is currently chair of No Labels, an aspirational crossover group of legislators that may run a national campaign next year aimed at the many voters who support neither of the likely big party nominees –Trump and Biden.

Right now, Hogan said, more voters are open to backing a third-party ticket than in previous years. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 47 percent of voters would consider supporting a third-party candidate.

Kemp, who has managed to hold on to his job as Georgia governor as a reliable conservative who resisted Trump’s attempt to impugn and overturn the Peach State’s support for Biden three years ago, recently told reporters he wouldn’t seek a presidential nomination in 2024.

Kemp won reelection easily in 2022 even as Democrat Raphael Warnock won a full Senate term and Trump’s resentful opposition did not seriously damage Kemp’s campaign.

“He was mad at me. I was not mad at him. I told him exactly what I could and couldn’t do when it came to the election and I followed the law and the Constitution. And as I’ve said before, that’s a lot bigger than Donald Trump.

It’s a lot bigger than me. It’s a lot bigger than the Republican Party,” Kemp said Monday.

Several Republicans remain in the 2024 nomination race as we approach an August 23 Republican presidential candidates’ debate. Others, like Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, have preferred a stealthier approach and have remained outside the circle of declared candidates.