"I'm going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, November 15 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida."
That was Donald Trump, speaking in Ohio to endorse author-turned-Senate candidate JD Vance ahead of midterm elections, just last week.
It's been widely speculated that Trump will use this opportunity to reveal his bid for a second presidential run ahead of the 2024 US election.
The forecasted "red wave" of Republican votes at midterm elections didn't materialise, but that won't likely deter Trump from putting plans in motion to take back power.
Is the 'big announcement' still happening?
At the moment, yes.
One of Trump's advisors, Jason Miller, said during an appearance on Steve Bannon's podcast on Friday that the former president will be announcing his 2024 presidential campaign.
Rumours emerged that other advisors were encouraging Trump delay the highly-publicised appearance after some key Republican midterm losses, but at this stage, there's been no reschedule of the event at Mar-a-Lago.
Bloomberg Opinion's senior executive editor Tim O'Brien told MSNBC over the weekend that regardless of whether this specific appearance goes ahead as planned, there's no way we've seen the last of Donald Trump.
"If he doesn't announce, or if he does announce, even if the [Republican] party want to put him in their rear-view mirror, he is someone who doesn't go away," he told Deadline White House.
"Most of the people he expressly campaigned with lost on Tuesday night. He knows that and the party knows that, and no one in the party would really take him on prior to Tuesday because they believed he still had a magical sway over voters.
"He still has a strong sway over his base, that 30 per cent or so of Republicans who love him, but he doesn't have a viable national electoral base.
"It took Tuesday night for the party to start moving against him."
What's the fallout against Trump from midterms?
The former US president had been hovering over the 2022 midterm elections all year, using his continued popularity among hard-right conservatives to influence the candidates the Republican Party nominated for congressional, gubernatorial and local races.
Even if the Republicans win a narrow majority in the House (which at this stage, it looks like they might), Trump has been blamed for boosting candidates who were unable to appeal to a broad enough electorate.
A potential Republican loss in Georgia's runoff could further dampen Trump's popularity — he's been a strong advocate for controversial candidate Herschel Walker.
The outcome may increase the chances of recently re-elected Florida Governor Ron DeSantis opting to challenge Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination.
Will we see a Trump-Pence 2.0 bid?
Uhh … probably not.
Former vice-president Mike Pence sat down for an interview with World News Tonight, set to air in full on Sunday night local time — one of his first television interviews since the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021.
He said Trump's actions on January 6 "endangered me and my family" as well as everyone at the scene of the violent riots.
"The president's words were reckless," Pence told anchor David Muir.
"It was clear he decided to be part of the problem."
There's also been no love lost between Trump and Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who has reportedly shouldered much of the blame from the former US president for the party's midterm losses.
In a post on his social media site Truth Social, Trump attacked McConnell over Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters' loss in Arizona.
Multiple Republicans, mostly supporters of Georgia runoff candidate Herschel Walker or McConnell opposers, have called for the party's looming leadership elections to be delayed.
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is one Republican who has publicly said he will oppose McConnell's upcoming bid for GOP leader, and accused the party of disenfranchising their Georgia candidate.
"I don’t know why Senate GOP would hold a leadership vote for the next Congress before this election is finished," Hawley tweeted.
"We have a runoff in [Georgia] — are they saying that doesn’t matter?"
ABC/wires
