The US Republican Party's weaker-than-expected performance in congressional elections, which many right-wing pundits attributed to former President Donald Trump, has caused an earthquake in conservative media and politics.
The abrupt breakup between Trump and Rupert Murdoch's conservative media, which labeled the former president as a "loser," speaks of how disappointed the Republicans are.
He fired back, accusing the media without evidence of favoring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom he sees as his main threat, as part of a conspiracy to deny him the nomination.
"A marriage of convenience that paid huge political and financial dividends has broken up in spectacular fashion," writes the Financial Times.
Formerly prominent Republicans such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Congressman Paul Ryan have criticized Trump for meddling in the midterm campaign, arguing that his involvement boosted Democratic turnout and alienated independent voters.
Even Fox News, the cable channel that has been with Trump for years, published an article on its website in which conservatives urged the party to continue without the former president.
According to Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Republicans may become so "exhausted with the fight — the constant fight — that they may believe that if we can find someone who has all of Trump's policies and isn't Trump, it might be time to turn the page."
That person could be DeSantis, a more extreme version of Trump and with a potentially better chance of being elected.
DeSantis has positioned himself as an aggressive conservative without Trump's legal troubles and a congressional investigation into his role in a deadly riot at the Capitol in January 2021.
He cemented his position as a major Republican rising star in Tuesday's election. Now comes the hard part.
With Trump expected to announce his candidacy for the presidency on Tuesday, DeSantis must decide if he is ready for the political fight of his life and challenge the former president in the race for the Republican nomination.
Reuters writes that DeSantis' calculation will undoubtedly be affected by the fact that some Republicans consider Trump increasingly toxic.
They argue that Trump and the candidates he supports lack the broad appeal necessary to win an election, and fear that, having failed two years ago, he will do so again in 2024.
The man who defeated Trump in 2020, incumbent President Joe Biden, said this Sunday that he intends to run again, but that he will make a final decision early next year. He is already the oldest president in American history and will be 2024 years old in 81.
Trump will be the favorite in the 2024 Republican primary, and he also remains very popular with the party base and has a huge amount of campaign cash, which will continue to grow.
However, there are increasing signs of Republican discontent.
The Marodox-owned New York Post, which has long been friendly to Trump, mocked him on its front page.
A day earlier, the Wall Street Journal, also owned by Murdoch's News Corp, published an editorial calling Trump the party's "biggest loser" and blaming him for organizing self-serving rallies that boosted Democratic turnout.
That paper also commented that Trump is leading Republicans from one political fiasco to another.
Of Murdoch's apparent switch from Trump to DeSantis, one former News Basket employee said: "Rupert likes to pick political winners, and he's good at it."
Trump showed no signs of concern about DeSantis on Thursday and lashed out at him in a lengthy statement.
”Ron DeSanctimonius plays games! "The Fake News asks him if he will run if President Trump runs, and he says, 'I'm just focused on the governor's race, I'm not looking at the future,'" Trump said. “Well, as far as loyalty and class goes, that's really not the right answer”.
Some Republicans are worried that Trump could destroy the chances of Herschel Walker, the former football star he recruited to run for Senate in Georgia, in a runoff against Sen. Raphael Warnock next month. Republican House member Mo Brooks on Thursday asked Trump not to get involved in the campaign.
A source close to Trump's team of advisers, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that the former president appeared determined to announce his candidacy on Tuesday because backing out would be interpreted as a "sign of weakness." Some of Trump's allies tried to convince him to postpone it.
DeSantis, 44, by contrast, has been enjoying positive coverage since easily defeating Democrat Charlie Crist on Tuesday. Although he has withdrawn from his presidential bid, supporters chanted "Two more years!" at his victory party.
This former US congressman is more than three decades younger than the 76-year-old Trump and would represent a dynamic contrast to Biden.
He is particularly popular among conservatives because he has taken a leading role in culture war issues involving race and gender. Last year, he got into a fight with the Walt Disney Company over his support for a controversial law, dubbed Don't Say Gay by opponents, that bans sex education and gender identity classes for children under 10.
DeSantis has raised more than $200 million since the start of 2021, breaking previous gubernatorial fundraising records. Trump raised more than $170 million during the same period across several fundraising groups.
DeSantis spent some time outside of Florida this year campaigning for other Republicans and building his national profile.
He refrained from criticizing Trump to avoid alienating the party's base. Trump's attitude toward DeSantis, however, is increasingly combative. He mocks him as Ron “DeSanktimonius” and brags that he got more votes in Florida in 2020 than DeSantis this week.
"I think there will be a lot of appetite from the more normal wing of the Republican Party for Ron DeSantis to run," said Sarah Longwell, a Republican political strategist who is a frequent critic of Trump.
Even if Trump re-enters the presidential race, he will continue to face a dizzying array of legal headaches, including investigations into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the removal of classified White House documents.
Some former Trump supporters say they would no longer support him.
"He is divisive. I don't like it," said Gordon Nelson, 77, of Michigan, who voted twice for Trump.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Biden said he found the prospect of a Trump-DeSantis face-off entertaining.
Voters are not thrilled with the idea of another Biden term. About two-thirds of voters polled do not want Biden to run again, including 43 percent of Democrats, according to exit polls conducted Tuesday by Edison Research.
Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who was a top aide on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, expects Biden to do so anyway.
"Every time Joe Biden was told he couldn't or shouldn't do something, he got it done," Ferguson said.
If Biden does not run again, a large number of Democrats could enter the race for his party's nomination, as was the case in 2020 when more than 20 candidates lined up to oppose Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris may be considered the frontrunner for the nomination, but she is saddled with an even worse approval rating than Biden.
Former candidates such as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, as well as Senators Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, could try again.
A new class of Democratic governors could also jump in, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, J.B. Pricker of Illinois and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, who just won a decisive victory after a hard-fought re-election campaign.
In addition to DeSantis and Trump, other Republicans who are considered potential candidates are former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.
What does too old mean?
Millions of Americans, including presidents, now continue to work long past the traditional retirement age of 65.
Ronald Reagan was 77 when he left the White House, but Biden, who turns 20 on November 80, would be 86 by the end of his second four-year term, if he wins it. Trump would be 82 when he leaves office if he wins in 2024.
Reuters reports that the United States is aging as a society, with the population over 65 projected to nearly double from 52 million in 2018 to 95 million by 2060. By 2026, more than one in four men over the age of 65 will still be working, the Population Reference Bureau predicts.
Still, some Americans are concerned about the ages of the two most likely candidates for 2024.
While 71 percent of Democrats think Biden is "sharp and up to the challenge," 46 percent say he may not be up to the challenge of running in 2024, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Wednesday and Thursday. About a quarter of Republicans, 26 percent, think Trump may not be ready for 2024 because of his age.
If political affiliations are excluded, 68 percent of those surveyed think that Biden may not be ready for the challenge in two years, and 49 percent say the same about Trump. About 86 percent of Americans said they believe the age limit for serving as president should be 75 or younger.
Biden's occasional gaffes and tendency to veer off script during live performances are pointed to by his Republican critics as evidence that he is too old for the job. His supporters say the president, who overcame a childhood stammer, has been giving public speeches without preparation for decades.
The outgoing Congress is one of the oldest in US history, with more than half of the House of Representatives and two-thirds of the Senate being part of the "baby boomer" generation born between 1946 and 1964. Biden, however, is not even in the top 10 on the list of the world's oldest sitting officials, which is led by 89-year-old Cameroonian President Paul Biya and includes 82-year-old Queen Margaret of Denmark.
"There is a reason why other societies look to their elders for wisdom and guidance. That's because they have experience that shouldn't be ignored," says Deborah Kado, co-director of the Longevity Center at Stanford University.
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