The American primary campaign is picking up speed this week. On Monday, Tim Scott, the only African-American Republican senator, is expected to announce his bid for the presidential nomination. The 57-year-old man from South Carolina is one of those Republicans who tried to preserve the traditional core of the "Grand Old Party" in the Trump era without alienating the president. His message is reminiscent of that of Ronald Reagan: he talks a lot about hope, the promise of advancement for those willing to perform, and America's charisma in the world.

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America, based in Washington.

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Like Nikki Haley, Trump's former ambassador to the UN, who is also from South Carolina, he is courting his party's conservative evangelical electorate. In the polls, he is lagging behind the leading former president. His candidacy is therefore unlikely to be a "game changer" that could give the primaries a new dynamic. This potential has another candidacy, which is expected this week. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, plans to officially enter the election campaign in the coming days. He is the only Republican who is currently believed to jeopardize Trump's renewed candidacy for 2024.

Speech to major Republican donors planned

DeSantis plans to address major Republican donors in Miami this week. The move by the governor, who was easily re-elected for a second term in last November's election, pleases all those conservatives in the party who do not want to turn back the clocks to the pre-Trump era, but want to leave Trump himself behind.

However, there is a debate about whether DeSantis may have waited too long to make his official announcement. In retrospect, the weeks after last year's congressional elections would have been a better time: DeSantis had just won his electoral success – and Trump had failed with his extremist candidates in important Senate elections. Polls of Republican voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the party's primaries begin, also suggested that the governor could leave the former president behind. This caused unrest in the Trump camp.

Since then, however, the dynamics have changed. Trump was able to use his legal problems to mobilize his base. In polls, the former president overtook his former protégé. At times, the governor's supporters even feared that DeSantis could get cold feet and renounce a candidacy. After all, the 44-year-old man has all the time in the world: why not let Trump lose to incumbent Joe Biden in 2024 and not enter the national stage until four years later?

DeSantis sees himself at an advantage over Trump

DeSantis has decided to want to know now. In a conference call with donors last week, he was combative: There are currently only three serious candidates with a view to 2024: Biden, Trump and him. He then added that he thinks only two of the three have a chance of becoming president: Biden and him. This was shown by polls in the central swing states, where the decisive electors are at stake.