The USA Today-Suffolk University poll released on Tuesday found Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) leading in a hypothetical race against former President Trump by 23 points.
According to the poll, around 56 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters expressed support for DeSantis, while only 33 percent did the same for Trump. Around 60 percent also said that they wanted to see a nominee who would continue with Trump’s policies, but that they did not want that nominee to be Trump himself. Only around 31 percent said explicitly that they wanted to see the former President running for the White House again.
David Paleologos, the director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, noted that many Republicans and conservatives appear to “want Trumpism without Trump.”
Trump is the first major candidate to officially announce his running for the 2024 presidential race. Despite this, his control over the GOP is weakening especially as many members of the party are blaming Trump for the lackluster results of the 2022 midterm elections. In the midterm elections, many Trump-backed candidates did not manage to win in key competitive races.
Recently, Trump has also received a lot of criticism online for having dinner with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, who has made a number of antisemitic comments and white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who is known for his antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Trump has argued that he did not know who Fuentes was or what views he held prior to the dinner.
