Were you anticipating Trump to run in 2024 right after the 2020 election?

[xavier110]

No. To me it made no sense - a year ago - for Trump to run again, and it still doesn't make sense now.
Since he so clearly believes that the last election was stolen from him via massive election fraud, why would he believe he CAN get elected in 2024? If 2020 was stolen from him why wouldn't 2024 be stolen as well? If those crafty Democrats and RINOs were capable of stealing one election from him, they will still be capable of doing it again four years later. So why bother?

He doesn’t believe it was stolen. He says that to rationalize his loss and to push measures that will better his chances next time.

Also if you haven’t been awake for the last six years, he creates his own reality to further his stranglehold over the GOP, who then are forced to accept this reality if they want to remain part of the party.

[xavier110]

No. To me it made no sense - a year ago - for Trump to run again, and it still doesn't make sense now.
Since he so clearly believes that the last election was stolen from him via massive election fraud, why would he believe he CAN get elected in 2024? If 2020 was stolen from him why wouldn't 2024 be stolen as well? If those crafty Democrats and RINOs were capable of stealing one election from him, they will still be capable of doing it again four years later. So why bother?

He doesn’t believe it was stolen. He says that to rationalize his loss and to push measures that will better his chances next time.

Also if you haven’t been awake for the last six years, he creates his own reality to further his stranglehold over the GOP, who then are forced to accept this reality if they want to remain part of the party.

But I have thought that he DID believe "the big lie." He was saying, even before election day, that the only way he could lose was if the election was rigged. He looked at all those huge, massive campaign rallies with tens of thousands of cheering supporters not practicing social distancing, compare them to Biden's campaign rallies - where people were deliberately practicing social distancing, so they did not show up in person - and Trump would say, "How could I lose?"

When Sidney Powell told him the Dominion Voting machines were rigged to flip millions of Trump votes to Biden, Trump believed it, because he had a vested interest in believing it. His massive ego would not let him give up the theory that he won by a landslide. "We won, by a LOT."

Remember that infamous phone call he made to Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021? That was the phone call in which he tried to pressure Raffensperger to change the Georgia election result by "finding" 11,780 more votes for himself. Since Trump was only talking to one person - Raffensperger - why would he continue to "lie"? Trump said, "As you know, every single state. We won every state; we won every statehouse in the country. ... But we won every single statehouse, ..." To me, that can only be said by someone whose egotism, narcissism, and delusions are all big enough to genuinely believe that what he was saying was the truth.

He was saying that to BR because he has to say he’s won to justify finding the “lost” votes for him. It makes no sense to say I’ve lost, find me votes. As a tactic, it also forces BR et al to go “yes sir, we know you won,” thereby further cementing his hold over party officials. Of course BR did not comply, so now he’s persona non grata.

He also said the same thing in 2016 - that he would lose a rigged election - to justify his impending loss. But then he won.