🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The nation's largest annual conference for Millennial and Gen-Z conservatives, AmericaFest, drew tens of thousands of attendees who seem divided on who should win the 2024 nomination—a troubling sign for the former president.
As Trump acolytes, like his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, sang praises for Trump's 2024 campaign, many event speakers avoided endorsing the former president and interviews with attendees revealed that many aren't prepared to commit to another Trump term just yet.
The four-day event in Phoenix, Arizona, is a glaring red flag for Trump's campaign. It signals there may not be a welcomed embrace awaiting the GOP figurehead in the Republican primaries.
"The fact that a previously elected president, head of the party with universal name ID is having any trouble solidifying enthusiastic support [from] the GOP faithful is a massive blinking warning sign," Republican strategist Alex Patton told Newsweek. "No one is just given the nomination. The former President is gonna have to work for it if he wants to win."
"People who formerly were openly pro-Trump are now hedging their bets," GOP political consultant Christopher Nicholas said.
While Trump has lambasted polls that show Florida Governor Ron DeSantis neck-and-neck with him for the 2024 GOP nomination, AmericaFest attendees reaffirmed that many conservatives remain divided on who to support for a presidential bid—even though DeSantis has yet to officially announce a 2024 run.
A number of eventgoers said that while they're fans of both Republicans, Trump has become so polarizing that it may be in the party's best interest to support a candidate who independent voters could get behind.
"What I'm hearing from people my age is—everyone who says 'Let's go Brandon' at these football games, you ask them—they'll say Ron DeSantis is our leader," 21-year-old Pete Duke told Politico. "Not Trump. And they all like Trump."
"There's a hint there that Trump is yesterday's man," another attendee told the Daily Mail.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal released a new poll showing DeSantis leading Trump by double digits, 14 points, in a hypothetical 2024 primary matchup. It also showed the governor with an 84 percent approval rating, compared to Trump's 71 percent.
Trump has disputed the polling, citing a different survey conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, a polling firm that previously worked with his 2020 campaign, claiming that "we are leading by a lot."
Recent polls conducted in the last month from Harris Poll, Monmouth University, Suffolk University, Marquette University and Quinnipiac University have also found DeSantis with an advantage over Trump.
It's not only everyday voters who seem unsure about who should be the Republican nominee, former Trump allies who spoke at America Fest also refrained from bringing up Trump's 2024 campaign in their speeches. Politico reported that neither Senator Josh Hawley, who refused to certify the results of the 2020 election, nor Trump's former press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, mentioned a Trump return to the White House.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was asked by an audience member who he would back in the GOP primary, bowed out of endorsing "anybody," saying he has "no idea" what would happen.
"At this point, it does seem like two forces moving toward one another at high speed," Carlson said about the Trump-DeSantis collision course. "I am completely comfortable putting my total ignorance on full and florid display, and telling you I have no freaking idea. But I can't wait to see it."
Even AmericaFest organizer Charlie Kirk, who said Trump is "the greatest president in my lifetime," still praised DeSantis, telling the Daily Mail ahead of the event that the governor has the makings to become "one of the best presidents in American history."
Despite Kirk's endorsement of Trump for 2024, GOP strategist Jay Townsend told Newsweek it is "meaningful" that Trump was not in attendance over the weekend.
He said that the lack of organized effort to support Trump and his 2024 campaign at such a massive event is telling that the former president has "become the entertainer who never updated his act and become a bore."
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek senior reporter based in New York City. She has covered U.S. politics and culture extensively. ... Read more