Donald Trump’s bid to win re-election to the White House has already gotten off to a shaky start, even for the particularly turbulent Republican.
On November 15, the former president confirmed he would be running for a third time following his previous victory in 2016 and subsequent loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
While Trump was for years considered to be the most powerful force in the GOP, it remains to be seen if he can continue to fight the constant battles he looks set to face for two more years in his quest to return to the White House.
As well as outside forces such as several criminal and civil investigations into him, Trump will also have to battle his own party after his reputation and influence took a hit in the wake of disappointing midterm election results.
Below, Newsweek looks into the potential banana skins that are already threatening to derail Trump’s 2024 campaign just weeks after it officially began.
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Legal battles
On top of the multiple investigations into his actions surrounding the January 6 Capitol riots, attempts to overturn the 2020 Election and allegations he mishandled classified materials recovered from his Mar-a-Lago resort, there have been significant updates in other legal battles and investigations involving the former president since he announced his 2024 run.
On November 25, former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll filed a battery lawsuit against Trump over allegations he raped her in the New York department store Bergdorf Goodman, which Trump denies.
Carroll filed the suit while taking advantage of the New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which that came into effect on Thanksgiving, that allows alleged adult sexual assault victims one year to bring lawsuits even if the statute of limitations has expired.
Carroll has also filed two defamation lawsuits against Trump over comments he made while denying the assault allegations, including saying he could not be guilty because “she’s not my type.”
On November 22, the Supreme Court paved the way for Trump’s tax returns to be handed over to the Democratic-controlled Ways and Means Committee as part of their investigation into whether the former president has been properly complying with Internal Revenue Service auditing.
On November 30 the House committee confirmed that they are now in possession of six years of Trump’s tax returns.
Trump, who became the first president in decades not to release his tax returns when he launched his run for the White House, sought to keep his financial documents sealed while suggesting attempts to access them were just so they could be leaked.
In September 2020, Trump’s tax returns were leaked to The New York Times, revealing he had paid just $750 federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017.
Trump suffered another legal loss after a federal court overturned the appointment of a special master in the Department of Justice (DoJ)’s classified documents investigation.
Florida judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, approved a request from the former president’s legal team to appoint a special master to review the thousands of materials recovered from Trump’s Florida home to determine if any are protected by special or executive privilege.
The role was later given to Raymond Dearie, one of Trump’s legal team’s suggestions, in September.
A unanimous December 1 ruling from the the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has now scrapped the special master review of the documents over fears it is hindering the DoJ’s criminal investigation. The court’s panel was also critical of Cannon’s original intervention in their ruling.
Kanye West fallout
Trump has received fierce criticism for hosting a dinner with rapper Kanye West—who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021—at his Mar-a-Lago resort, which was also attended by white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
Rather than denounce the hip hop star, who has made a string of antisemitic statements in recent weeks, Trump said he was merely helping a “seriously troubled man” who has been “decimated in his business and virtually everything else” following his comments.
Trump also failed to condemn Fuentes after he visited his Florida home, and said he didn’t know who Fuentes was when he arrived with West.
“Nick Fuentes is among the most prominent and unapologetic antisemites in the country. He’s a vicious bigot and Holocaust denier who has been condemned by leading figures from both political parties, including the Republican Jewish Coalition,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, previously told Newsweek.
“The notion that former President Trump or any serious contender for higher office would meet with either of them, or validate these two figures by sharing a meal and spending time with them, is appalling.”
GOP revolt
For many within the Republican Party, Trump’s meeting with West and Fuentes was just another reason why he should not lead the GOP in the 2024 election.
Even before the Mar-a-Lago dinner, Trump had already been widely blamed for the GOP’s floundering midterm performance as a number of the former president’s endorsed candidates failed to win their races across the country. As a result, the GOP failed to win control of the Senate and only just achieved the 218 majority in the House, instead of the widely predicted “red wave.”
“President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table,” Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence told NewsNation. “I think he should apologize for it, and he should denounce those individuals and their hateful rhetoric without qualification.”
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told The New York Times in November: “This is just another example of an awful lack of judgment from Donald Trump, which, combined with his past poor judgments, make him an untenable general election candidate for the Republican Party in 2024.”