“Brace yourself: Donald Trump plans to run for president again. At least that’s what the former president is telling his dinner buddies. Trump has told at least three people he’s dined with in recent months that he plans to run in 2024, a former senior official at the Republican National Committee tells Rolling Stone. ‘I have three friends who’ve had dinner with him in the last couple of months. All three reported that his current plans are to run for president in 2024,’ the former R.N.C. official says. ‘Now, whether he does or not is a different issue. We’ve still got three years to go. But he’s telling people that.’ The ex-R.N.C. official says the first two dinners took place in late spring. But the third dinner happened in the last two weeks, the official said. The first two dinner companions came away from their conversations convinced Trump was serious and he’s running, the official adds. The third said he left the dinner ‘not 100% sure Trump wants to run but he likes being in the conversation, he wants to freeze the field, and he wants his name out there,’ according to the ex-R.N.C. official” Rolling Stone reports.

“The second [Trump] says no, someone smashes a giant red button that says RON DESANTIS, a klaxon alarm goes off, and everyone focuses on him instead. He’s well aware of that issue, which sure seems like a problem for DeSantis… If you think Trump has a hard time getting his daily complaints about Twitter bans and which of his cabinet picks he hates into the national conversation now, imagine it’s 2023 and he’s clearly not running. Not gonna happen until the absolute last second even if he doesn’t do it” writes NBC editor Benjy Sarlin in a reply to the article.