On the most important and decisive night of the midterm elections in 2022, Donald J. Trump held a rally in Ohio to support one of the candidates running for the Senate, but he ended up hogging all of the attention for himself instead.
Mr. Trump spent the vast majority of his time during his speech on a windy airport tarmac outside of Dayton talking about his four years as president, the multiple investigations he has survived, the handful of new investigations he is now facing, and, once again, a drawn-out tease about his plan to probably, potentially, and in all likelihood announce a third campaign for president.
On the other hand, he specified the time and location this time around.
During the last few minutes of his address that lasted for a total of one hundred minutes, he said, “I’m going to be making a very major announcement on November 15 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.”
Mr. Trump has never been one to share the stage for very long, and to be sure, the vast majority of the men and women who waited hours for his jet to taxi to a halt and disgorge the former president did so in order to see him more than they did in order to hear J.D. Vance, the Republican Senate candidate in the state, urge them to go to the polls. This is because Mr. Trump has never been one to share the stage for very long.
However, the gathering was reportedly arranged in order to demonstrate support for Mr. Vance, who was running for office for the first time and who, according to recent polls, is having a difficult time pulling ahead of Representative Tim Ryan, who is the Democratic nominee.
The time allotted to Mr. Vance at the microphone by Mr. Trump was precisely one minute.
Mr. Trump has continued to take steps that bring him closer and closer to declaring his candidacy for a third term in a row for the White House. He even let folks know earlier that day that he was contemplating making the announcement that he was running for office at the rally that evening.
However, doing so posed the danger of the strategy backfiring by drawing attention to the importance of the election for Democrats and other individuals who are repulsed by Mr. Trump, as well as encouraging others who have not voted yet to do so on Tuesday.
Some of Mr. Trump’s allies and advisors have persuaded him to delay his announcement until at least January, out of concern that “Trump fatigue” played a role in his defeat in 2020 and because they believe voters would want a break after the contentious midterm elections.
During his address in Ohio, the former president gave the impression that he was aware of the potential dangers by explaining to his audience of supporters why he had refrained from making a full-blown declaration from the rally platform.
He said that they did not want anything to take away from the significance of the next day.
It’s simpler to say than it is for the branding mogul and former prime-time TV personality to put that into practise.