The New Yorker:

The former President’s political and legal challenges are mounting, even as some polls indicate he still has a lot of support among Republicans.

By John Cassidy

This week brought news that Donald Trump is facing yet another criminal investigation—into his 2016 hush-money payoff to the adult-film star Stormy Daniels—and that former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who served in his Administration, is set to announce her 2024 candidacy in a couple of weeks. These developments came days after Trump set out on the campaign trail again for the first time, making appearances in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Taking place in two small venues—a high-school auditorium and the second-floor lobby of a state house—these events were very different from Trump’s trademark stadium rallies.

Establishment Republicans derided Trump’s début. “He’s turning into Mott the Hoople and doing the state-fair tour,” the G.O.P. strategist Mike Murphy, who advised Jeb Bush during the 2016 primaries, told me. “It’s like a half-life. He’s shrinking.” Murphy wasn’t just referring to the small crowds that attended Trump’s events but also to polls indicating that many Republican voters don’t want the former President to be the G.O.P. candidate in 2024. With his legal troubles mounting and more Republican challengers on the horizon, Trump needs to rekindle some of the excitement among G.O.P. primary voters that he did in 2016. But does he have anything new to offer?

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