The FBI operation may affect Trump's presidential aspiration in 2024

By Marc Caputo and

Donald Trump has given many signs that he wants to run for the 2024 presidential election. The search that the FBI made Monday night at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, can only reaffirm his decision to launch again into the race for the White House and possibly precipitate the announcement of his candidacy, according to experts.

"If he didn't run before, he does now," said a source close to the former president about his electoral intentions.

"It annoys him that they can do this to him. One way to get him to stop doing it is to bring the government back under control," he said.

Secret Service agents at the gate to Donald Trump's residence in Florida, as FBI agents conduct a search on August 8, 2022. Terry Renna / AP

As a presidential candidate, Trump could be in a stronger position to argue that the federal investigation amounts to a politically motivated attempt to harm him in a potential showdown with President Joe Biden at the polls. 

Another incentive to run would be that if he wins, Trump would be shielded from possible prosecution due to the Justice Department's long-standing practice of never charging a sitting president with a crime.

In addition, he would take back the power to hire and fire FBI and Justice Department officials who have great influence over whom to investigate and indict.

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None of those realities escapes Trump, the source stressed. 

"They are terrified that any day he will announce that he is running for president in 2024," Lara Trump, the former president's daughter-in-law, said on Fox News.

"And this is a very convenient way to throw a little more mud on Donald Trump like they haven't done enough already," she added.

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An attorney for Trump, Christina Bobb, told NBC News that Trump and his legal team have cooperated with authorities and that the FBI "seized documents" in their "unannounced raid."

A source familiar with the matter said the search is linked to classified information Trump allegedly took from the White House to his Palm Beach mansion in January 2021.

The former president was in charge of announcing that his house had been searched by federal agents.

Trump, who was seen leaving his building in New York on Monday night, said in a statement that he is the target of "third world" tactics aimed at undermining his potential candidacy.

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Trump's allies were quick to jump on the idea that he is being persecuted.

"All of a sudden, 30 agents descend on Mar-a-Lago," Trump's son Eric described to Fox News.

"They know who this came from — this came from a place and a building, the White House in Washington, DC They want to attack a guy that they see as the biggest threat — it's Biden's biggest threat. And that's exactly what it is." Donald J. Trump," he stressed.

A White House official told NBC News that the White House had not been given advance notice of the FBI operation. 

This implies that they are investigating Trump's actions regarding the assault on the Capitol and the electoral result.

July 27, 202202:20

No candidate for high office wants to run while dodging a federal investigation.

But in Trump's case, the escalating legal troubles surrounding him dovetail with a narrative he has spun since announcing his candidacy in 2015: that he is a political outsider, whose populist appeal threatens the "establishment." " political.

“They have persecuted President Trump as a candidate, as president and now as a former president,” South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem, an ally of the former president, wrote on Twitter.

"Using the criminal justice system in this way is un-American," she said.

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At this early stage, it is difficult to predict the repercussions of this unprecedented search, after federal agents obtained a search warrant, entered the residence of a former president and even opened his safe.

However, Trump's vulnerability may encourage more Republican politicians to challenge him for the party's nomination ahead of the 2024 election. The Republican National Committee has asked Trump not to announce his candidacy until after the midterm elections. held in November, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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"The FBI raid on Trump's beloved Mar-a-Lago tears apart the 2024 Republican primary. The Trump era is over, and it's anybody's ball," said businessman Dan Eberhart, a major donor to the party.

"The gridlock of Republican candidates waiting to see if Trump would show up just broke. There's no need for them to wait anymore," he said.

But there is another possibility: that the actions that the Government undertakes from now on provoke a reaction that favors Trump, a scenario in which the media have a lot to do.

In fact, Fox News already took a step in that direction on Monday night.

"Biden's FBI loots his potential opponent's house by 2024," he said in a banner that appeared on screen.

"The effect of this thing is that it's going to make a martyr out of him," said a former Justice Department official who requested anonymity.

"It will elevate Trump and push people towards him," he said.