Trump Fields calls from Republican Allies to Speed up 2024 bid following FBI Raid

Top Republicans who have spent months trying to stop Donald Trump from starting another presidential campaign before the midterms are now coming around to the idea after an unprecedented search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago property by federal investigators on Monday lit up the GOP base.

Since the FBI got a search warrant for Trump’s primary residence 24 hours ago, new encouragement has been given to him to launch his next presidential campaign, according to sources familiar with the situation who spoke to CNN.

Labor Day had been the target launch date for the former President, who is widely expected to run again; however, advisors are now advising him to move up his timeline in order to take advantage of what Republicans have regarded as extraordinary overreach and political persecution by Justice Department officials. This includes advisors who had previously advised him to wait until 2024 to make the announcement.

“My advice that we should wait until after the midterms were based upon a rather standard landscape. [The Justice Department] set off a nuclear bomb on that landscape yesterday.

This is no longer a business-as-usual campaign. Not even close,” said Michael Caputo, a longtime Trump confidant, who previously urged the former President to wait for the 2022 election outcome before diving into a presidential primary.

According to a source familiar with the situation, a senior House Republican personally urged Trump on Tuesday to announce his candidacy before the midterm elections, dismissing worries among other Republicans that such a move might galvanize Democratic voters in an otherwise pro-Republican political environment.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Trump’s Capitol Hill allies, told reporters he spoke to the former President twice on Tuesday, and “the one thing I can tell you is that I believed he was gonna run before [and] I am stronger in my belief now.”

“I think President Trump is determined now more than ever to straighten this country out,” Graham added.

Since the search was conducted at Trump’s waterfront property, there has been a notable change in thinking among some of his strongest allies on Capitol Hill, according to three reliable sources.

The majority of Trump’s advisers have given up their early concerns that if he announced before November, he would overshadow weak Democrats, while those who believe he shouldn’t run for president right away because there is strong evidence against him are now in the minority. In the last 12 hours, the former President has dismissed concerns he had voiced to advisors about not being able to access the $121 million war chest he has amassed after he declares his candidacy.

“Where others see criminal jeopardy, Donald Trump sees dollar signs,” said one person close to the former President.

“Most of the downsides of announcing early are regulatory or financial but the Democrats just guaranteed that Trump will raise three times the money he was going to and probably in the immediate future,” Caputo added.

This article originally appeared in CNN and has been updated.