Trump moves internal: How the former president is focusing his attacks on former aides

Former President Donald Trump is focusing his attention and attacks on his former aides whose names are being tossed around as potential 2024 GOP candidates.

Trump, who wasted no time after the 2022 midterm elections announcing his bid for the White House, has been the only Republican to announce their 2024 campaign. However, Trump's former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could widen the Republican Party's pool of candidates.

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To get ahead of his possible competitors, the former president has already turned to criticizing their stance on foreign policy, painting himself as an "anti-war" president compared to Haley and Pompeo, who have supported or called on the U.S. to send funds and equipment to Ukraine in their war against Russia.

"Trump is the only person who has said no more funding for the Ukraine war," a person close to the Trump campaign told Politico. "I haven’t heard Nikki Haley say anything like that ... Pompeo or Pence? Where do they stand on Ukraine?”

The former president also said last week that Pompeo "took a little bit more credit than he should" for accomplishments as Secretary of State in an attempt to diminish any foreign policy successes while he held the position. The super PAC supporting Trump reiterated comments he made regarding Haley as a "warmonger" and "Neocon Nikki."

© Provided by Washington Examiner President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP)

After announcing his election campaign, Trump immediately began launching verbal attacks at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has not announced his intentions for the presidency but would be a considerable threat to Trump if he ran. Florida Republicans and DeSantis were successful during the 2022 midterm elections, something that the former president takes credit for.

DeSantis has not been immune to Trump's foreign policy critique, either.

“Trump is the peace president and he’s the first president in two generations to not start a war, whereas if you look at DeSantis’s congressional record, he’s voted for more engagement and more military engagement overseas,” the campaign informant said.

Republican strategist David Urban told Politico that he thinks DeSantis and other governors may have a disadvantage when it comes to foreign policy, as they will have a limited track record internationally.

“The governors will have a tough time proving their foreign policy chops because it’s not in their job description, so they’re going to have to do something to step up and prove to voters that they’re capable of handling all these issues that present themselves on the global stage,” Urban said.

"[Potential] candidates such as Pompeo and Haley and Pence and the [former] president can say, ‘Here’s me sitting down with Kim Jong Un, and here’s what we were able to accomplish with the Abraham Accords or on USMCA,'" Urban added. "Everyone has something they can talk about on concrete terms, where[as] governors can’t and that will be a point of differentiation among a wide group of them."

DeSantis is showing signs that he is already making moves to address this potential lack after meeting with foreign leaders such as Paraguay President Mario Abdo Benitez and ambassadors from Israel, United Arab Emirates, and Japan.

However, critics of Trump think his claims of foreign policy will fall on deaf ears. Former national security adviser John Bolton said he thought Trump will be vulnerable on foreign policy when it is clear he had none.

“He doesn’t have policy on much of anything, he has Donald Trump,” he said. “So his most recent musing is that if he were president he could solve [the] Ukraine-Russia dispute in 24 hours — I think it is so ridiculous it falls on its own weight. … I think people over time and self-identified Republicans just don’t buy it.”

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Haley is reportedly set to announce her candidacy for president on Feb. 15. A supporter of Trump, she is likely to focus more on President Joe Biden's approach to China and Iran, as well as the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“That is not the focus,” a person close to Haley said of sparring with Trump. “We are focused on Biden.”

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Tags: Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Nikki Haley, 2024 Elections, Mike Pompeo, News

Original Author: Rachel Schilke

Original Location: Trump moves internal: How the former president is focusing his attacks on former aides