washington donald trump began 2022 on a high primary candidates were flocking to florida to court the former president for a coveted endorsement his rallies were drawing thousands a bevy of investigations remained largely under the radarone year later trump is facing a very different realityhe is mired in criminal investigations that could end with indictments he has been blamed for republicans disappointing performance in the november elections and while he is now a declared presidential candidate the six weeks since he announced have been marked by selfinflicted crises trump has not held a single campaign event and he barely leaves the confines of his maralago club in floridainstead of staving off challengers his potential 2024 rivals appear ever more emboldened florida gov ron desantis fresh off a resounding reelection victory increasingly is seen as trumps most formidable competitiontrumps subdued campaign announcement has left even former stalwarts wondering whether he is serious about another run for the white housethere was a movie called failure to launch i think thats what donald trumps process of running has been so far he had the announcement and he hasnt done anything to back it up since then said michael biundo a gop operative who advised trumps 2016 campaign but is steering clear this timewhat campaign asked longtime gop donor dan eberhart who gave usd 100000 to trumps 2020 reelection effort but is now gravitating to desantis trumps early launch seems more a reaction to desantis overperformance and a legal strategy against prosecution than a political campaigntrump campaign officials insist they have been spending the weeks since his november 15 announcement methodically building out a political operation trump they note announced just before the holiday season when politicians typically lie low and he did so unusually early giving him plenty of time to ramp upthis is a marathon and our game plan is being implemented by design said trump spokesperson steven cheungwere also assembling toplevel teams in early voting states and expanding our massive data operation to ensure we dominate on all fronts he saidwe are not going to play the medias game that tries to dictate how we campaigntrump also defended criticism of his campaigns slow start the rallies will be bigger and better than ever because our country is going to hell but its a little bit early dont you think he wrote on his social media sitewhile he has eschewed campaign events the former president has nonetheless courted controversythere was his dinner with a white nationalist and the rapper formerly known as kanye west who has been spouting antisemitic tropes and conspiracies his suggestions that parts of the constitution be terminated to return him to power and the major announcement that turned out to be the launch of 99 digital trading cards that do not benefit his campaignsince his announcement he has also faced a series of legal losses including the appointment of a special counsel to oversee the justice departments investigation into the presence of classified documents at trumps florida