RICHMOND, Va. — Former President Donald Trump is expected to announce another run for the White House in 2024 next week. In the lead up to the announcement, Trump has seemingly turned on some former allies. On Friday, he took aim at Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
In a post to his Truth Social platform, the former president said Youngkin could not have won his race for governor 2021 without his support.
"I Endorsed him, did a very big Trump Rally for him telephonically, got MAGA to Vote for him - or he couldn’t have come close to winning," Trump wrote. He also made reference to Youngkin's name sounding "Chinese."
The post comes after Youngkin's Lieutenant Governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, said she would not support Trump in 2024.
She was just one Republican to criticize Trump following disappointing results for the GOP in the 2022 midterm elections.
Following the results, some allies were calling on Trump to delay his planned announcement next week, saying the party's full focus needs to be on Georgia, where Trump-backed football great Herschel Walker's effort to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is headed to a runoff that could determine control of the Senate once again.
“I’ll be advising him that he move his announcement until after the Georgia runoff,” said former Trump adviser Jason Miller, who spent the night with the former president at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “Georgia needs to be the focus of every Republican in the country right now," he said.
Trump sought to use the midterms as an opportunity to prove his enduring political influence after losing the White House in 2020. He endorsed more than 330 candidates in races up and down the ballot, often elevating inexperienced and deeply flawed candidates. He reveled in their primary victories. But many of their positions, including echoing Trump's lies about a stolen 2020 election and embracing hardline views on abortion, were out of step with the political mainstream.
In addition to this latest attack aimed at Youngkin, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at likely 2024 presidential contender, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling him "Ron DeSanctimonious" and warning him not to run.