Tim Scott has confirmed he is on the Trump 2024 train

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Scott was the first Black senator elected from the Deep South since Reconstruction and the first Black Republican to serve in the Senate since 1979. And he carved out a role in the Senate as a conservative, yes, but someone willing to work with the Democratic – as he did in his late unsuccessful attempt to pass police reform law earlier this year. He looks and speaks in ways that are very different from the ways of Donald Trump. (Scott’s typical introduction: “I’m a Christian who’s a conservative and you may have noticed that I’m Black.”) And he’s been critical of Trump, especially on issues of race; Scott said Trump’s response to the White nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 caused the then President to compromise his “moral authority.”

Except … Tim Scott isn’t running for president in 2024. Or, at least, he won’t be running for president if Trump decides to run again.

Scott’s decision to follow Trump is in line with the overall strategy of other Republicans cited as possible candidates in 2024.

“I wouldn’t run if President Trump ran, and I would talk to him about it,” the former South Carolina Gov. said. Nikki Haley this spring, comments came after she drew national headlines for suggesting that the GOP moved beyond Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 unrest in the U.S. Capitol. (“He won’t run for federal office again,” Haley predicted then. “I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture. I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far.”) Florida Sen. Rick Scott, another regularly cited 2024 candidate, said he’s not running and that Trump “should do it again.” Fellow Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has vowed not to run if Trump decides to do it again, calling the billionaire businessman “the most famous and most influential Republican in America.”

This stance of support — Trump is rightly read as a function of the current moment in Republican politics.

There is no room in Trump’s Republican Party for those challenging the throne. Trump himself has actively hinted at his plans to run again as a way to freeze the 2024 field-and has led the party to search for anyone who seems less loyal to him. ”2 down, just 8! , ”Trump said in a statement Friday, a reference to Illinois Rep. Retirement decision. Adam Kinzinger, one of 10 House Republicans who voted for his impeachment for his actions (and inaction) in the Jan. 6 riot.

Scott, then, is only responding to political reality. The suggestion that he may not endorse Trump in 2024-or, worse, run against the former president-will no doubt catch the eye of Trump who is always watching and will open the South Carolina Republican to criticism from within the Trump-loyal wing of the GOP. (That wing, incidentally, is pretty much the entirety of the Republican Party at this point.)

Plus, if Trump runs, there’s almost no way he won’t win the Republican nomination. Such is his dominance in the GOP. Consequently, endorsing the person a) gives every indication that he or she will run and b) is the presumed favorite to be the party nominee if he or she runs is a no-brainer for pols like Scott who wants to make sure they keep their own favor on the party base as much as possible.

Of course, for that segment of Republicans desperate to move the party beyond Trump in 2024, Scott’s decision to line up is more evidence that the former president isn’t giving up his hold on the party anytime soon.

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