Trump separated himself from the pack in 2016 by campaigning on building the wall, deporting illegals, draining the swamp, and locking up Hillary.
If he tries running on the same or similar issues this time around, the stench of bullshit will be too much to ignore except for his most devoted followers.
IMO, he'll probably run on "I'm not Biden," and I'm sure with how bad Biden is, he'll win just off of that.
The sad part is, this will be another wasted election to try and get an actual change candidate who won't sell out as much. Too bad Rand Paul has a terrible sense of what grassroots Republican voters want. Last time around, he was pandering to try in bring in more black voters. Fucking eh, what a mess.
Who? Prior to Trump announcing in his run for 2016, many thought the Republican primaries were stacked. He dismantled them all thoroughly, so hard that Cruz almost lost to Beto afterwards. If you think that won't happen to DeSantis or whomever else wants to try, I've got a bridge real cheap
If Trump wants to run, he's the nominee
That was then. The Trump mystique has faded a bit, I think, and many (like me) who are voting anti-D want to see anyone but Trump as the R nominee, simply because he galvanizes progressives and Ds into going to the polls and his candidacy would INVITE cheating just as it did in 2020, an election in which people admitted to it in print.
Of course, if he's nominated I'll vote for him.