Tired of hearing about (and from) Donald Trump?

Sadly, we can’t expect any reprieve in 2024, with the former US president – and leading candidate to be the next Republican nominee – expected to rocket to an even higher profile in coming months.

Trump has already spent years dominating headlines with his rhetoric, actions and covfefe.

In the new year, he is likely to be only more prominent as he navigates the fallout from his efforts to overturn the 2020 US presidential election and supercharges his quest to return to the White House.

It’s already started. In recent weeks and months, Trump has ratcheted up his authoritarian speech, as he threatens retribution against his foes.

In a tirade against migrants earlier this month, Trump accused them of “poisoning the blood of our country” – a phrase seized upon by his opponents as mirroring Nazi rhetoric.

Days earlier, he denied he’d be a dictator if is re-elected this coming November.

“No, no – other than day one,” he said, adding that he would immediately order the resumption of drilling for energy and close the southern border with Mexico to undocumented workers.

Court cases

But his path to return to the White House is littered with potholes – notably numerous state and federal court cases.

While a judge has found Trump guilty of fraudulently overvaluing his vast property holdings in a New York civil case, it’s the criminal cases  that could land him in prison.

He faces dozens of charges for mishandling classified documents, his actions before and during the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol, and putting forward fake electors.

Facing multiple charges, Donald Trump could spend his final years behind bars. Photo: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office

Trump has tested a new tactic to handle numerous gag orders that are intended to prevent him talking about his cases and attacking his enemies: challenging the decision legally, and lambasting his targets with renewed vigour while the courts make a ruling.

Jack Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor, is pursuing the former president on two fronts: For his efforts to stop Joe Biden from becoming president in January 2021, and over his handling of classified documents that he refused to return after leaving the White House. Many were found stuffed in boxes and stashed at Trump’s Florida home.

Aileen Cannon, the judge in his classified documents case, was a Trump appointee and has given him breathing room with favourable decisions. The same can’t be said for his election interference cases in Georgia and the US Federal Court.

Trump has attempted to push back the timeline of his trials, which have been set tentatively throughout 2024. He simultaneously claims they amount to election interference, while also attempting to absolve himself of any wrongdoing through presidential immunity.

The chances of further state charges in Arizona and Nevada cannot be ruled out either, with witnesses from the Georgia investigation cooperating with investigators in other states.

In the final days of 2023, there have been more legal decisions against Trump. Colorado’s Supreme Court disqualified him from appearing on ballots in that state because of his role in the US Capitol attack.

He was barred under section three of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment – the so-called disqualification clause aimed at officeholders in the Confederacy during the Civil War. It is the first time the amendment has been used to deem a presidential candidate ineligible for the White House.

Colorado Republicans have already appealed the decision, and Trump – who has called it “undemocratic” is expected to follow.

That didn’t stop a second state, Maine, making the same ruling on Friday. Unlike Colorado, that edict was issued by the state attorney-general, a Democrat, acting alone.

Presidential race

The former president has put his mark firmly on the Republican Party, remaking it in his own twisted image, and his numerous and accumulating legal woes have only strengthened his position as its presidential candidate-elect.

When Trump burst onto the scene as the frontrunner for the presidential nomination in 2015, his rivals – such as senator Ted Cruz – vowed to oppose him at all costs.

The rhetoric changed hastily after Trump became the Republican nominee and, eventually, president. Some of his former competitors have since become his closest allies in the quest to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

This time around, other candidates have been wary of criticising Trump, who remains hugely popular with Republican voters.

The only one to take aim at him is former New Jersey governor and his former partner in 2016’s practice debates Chris Christie.

“He’ll burn America to the ground to help himself,” Christie says in an ad that has begun appearing on US TV.

“Every Republican leader says that in private. I’m the only one saying it in public.”

Elsewhere, Florida governor Ron DeSantis – once touted as Trump’s successor – has failed to consolidate early support and close the distance.

Where Trump does remain disliked is among the American public, with recent polling aggregation from FiveThirtyEight finding 53 per cent of Americans view him unfavourably.

But Biden isn’t exactly winning over the public either. Even more Americans, some 55.4 per cent, view the President unfavourably by the same measurement. However, the results may well be different when it comes to a direct choice between the pair.

Joe Biden has struggled to win over the American public. Photo: Getty

Despite his multiple legal battles, Trump will remain eligible to run for president even if he is convicted – and even if he is jailed.

The whole scenario sets the stage for a constitutional crisis never before seen in the US. The question of whether a president can pardon himself of all federal crimes has never been tested.

Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace over the Watergate burglary scandal, was pardoned by his successor and former VP, Gerald Ford.

For all of that, a state conviction cannot be pardoned through the White House.