Fox News Senior Political Analyst Says Trump May Have Blundered by Announcing So Early: ‘Not Sure What the Strategy Is’

Fox News Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume observed that Donald Trump may have committed a serious strategic mistake by announcing his 2024 presidential candidacy so early.

The former president announced another White House run on Tuesday night at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Typically, major party candidates wait until the year before an election. Trump is the first high-profile Republican to announce a bid.

Hume appeared on Wednesday’s Special Report on Fox News, where anchor Bret Baier noted some former members of the Trump administration have so far declined to say whether they’ll endorse him.

“You have the former Trump team members, who all have either weighed in saying they wouldn’t vote for him today or potentially are going to run against him,” Baier said.

“It’s interesting because it’s a signal of something that we’ve seen in some of the polling, which is that some measure of Trump support, which was once a distinct majority among Republicans has ebbed away from him.”

He said now most Republicans prefer a 2024 nominee other than Trump.

The Fox News pundit stated that given this, it’s likely Trump would fare better in a crowded primary field than in a smaller one against one or two formidable rivals. However, he said, announcing so early is likely to freeze out some candidates and preemptively narrow the field:

I guess the hope is that there will be a splintered field, and even with a minority, a plurality of Republicans, he could win the nomination. I don’t see how announcing this early, however, helps that because I think one thing that an announcement early by one of the big dukes in a party tends to do is keep other people from getting in the race.

Hume concluded, “So, what he needs is a lot of people in the race. So, I’m not sure that what the strategy is here, or if there is one.”

Watch above via Fox News.