- Several GOP donors are fearful of Trump launching a 2024 presidential campaign, per The Washington Post.
- "Republicans think he is declining in relevance and they want someone else," a GOP advisor said.
- Trump has not yet announced his candidacy but has teased a bid since leaving office last year.
Former President Donald Trump has long commanded attention within the Republican party, from its donor class to the highest levels of GOP leadership in Congress.
However, as several would-be Republican contenders quietly consider presidential campaigns in 2024, some of the donors who lined up behind Trump in the past are hoping that the party will nominate a new candidate, according to The Washington Post.
Some in the high-dollar GOP donor world who backed Trump in 2020 are now fearful of another candidacy by the former president, based on conversations with several individuals who spoke with The Post.
Per those individuals, some of the donors told Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and other GOP figures that the party needs to move past the former president. Several Republicans donors have expressed unease about a third Trump presidential candidacy because they feel it would boost Democrats, according to the report.
"Republicans think he is declining in relevance and they want someone else," a GOP advisor with ties to major donors told The Post. "But people feel like they have to appease him. We are in the appeasement phase."
In addition, some GOP activists have quietly griped that Trump doesn't speak about inflation and high gas prices as much as he should — noting that those issues are vulnerabilities that he could use against President Joe Biden.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday released data showing that the Consumer Price Index — a key measure of US inflation — rose 8.6% year over year in May. And since last week, gas prices now average $5 a gallon nationwide.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — who is considering a 2024 campaign and has said in the past that he would be willing to run against Trump in a GOP primary — told The Post that party voters have become less attuned to the former president's unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
"As I travel around the country campaigning for other Republican candidates, there is more and more doubt and disinterest regarding the president's claims the 2020 election was stolen," Christie told the newspaper. "They care about the issues affecting them."
No major Republican candidate has yet to announce a 2024 campaign, but Trump has teased a 2024 presidential run since he left the White House last year, headlining "Save America" rallies and endorsing his preferred candidates in primaries across the country.