Fox News Flash top headlines for May 23
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Trump getting ready to hit campaign trail
Former President Donald Trump is gearing up for "upcoming rallies."
And the former president, who’s expected to begin holding rallies again as early as next month, also says that he’s refurbishing the airliner that he used during his 2016 White House campaign.
TRUMP HEADED TO BATTLEGROUND NORTH CAROLINA TO HEADLINE STATE GOP CONVENTION
Trump announced on Friday that his Boeing 757, which was kept in storage during his tenure in the White House as he flew aboard Air Force One, "is now being fully restored and updated and will be put back into service sometime prior to the end of the year."
And he touted that "when completed, it will be better than ever, and again used at upcoming rallies!"
After residing in Palm Beach, Florida, at his Mar-a-Lago resort since leaving the White House in January, Trump’s now moved north to his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey.
And Saturday night at Bedminster, Trump held his first fundraising event for the newly formed Make America Great Again, a super PAC being spearheaded by top Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski.
Trump will travel to North Carolina early next month to headline the state Republican Party's annual convention. As first reported by Fox News, the former president will attend the North Carolina GOP’s state convention in Greenville on Saturday, June 5 and will speak at the convention dinner.
Christie stirs the pot
Unlike most of the potential 2024 Republican presidential contenders, Chris Christie isn’t hesitant to discuss his possible national ambitions in the next race for the White House.
And he isn’t letting the possibility of a Trump 2024 run to try and recapture the White House stand in his way.
CHRISTIE TURNS INTO BIDEN ATTACK DOG
The former two-term GOP governor of New Jersey and unsuccessful 2016 Republican presidential contender once again highlighted he’s not ruling out another run for the White House, saying on "Ruthless" – the popular podcast by Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug and Michael Duncan – that "I certainly wouldn’t preclude it." And he repeated his timeline that he’ll make a decision after the 2022 midterm elections.
But Christie raised eyebrows by emphasizing that "I'm also not going to be one of these people who's going to say, well, I'll wait to see what President Trump's going to do. You know, I'm not going to defer to anyone if I decide that it's what I want to do, and that I think I'm the best option for the party and for the country."
And in what appeared to be a dig at Nikki Haley, another potential 2024 contender, Christie added "I think if you say you're deferring to someone, that's a real sign of both weakness and indecision. And we've already got that in the White House."
Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during Trump’s first two year in office, told the Associated Press last month that "I would not run if President Trump ran."
Garden Staters give Christie thumbs down
Just 10% of voters in New Jersey say they want their former governor run for president again, according to a Monmouth University poll released this past week. Nearly six in ten don’t want to see another Christie presidential campaign, with three in ten saying they don’t care.
"Christie left a lasting impression on the state. Nearly every New Jerseyan still has an opinion of him. The problem is those opinions tend to be fairly negative," Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said.
Poll position
Trump remains the overwhelming front runner in the race for the 2024 GOP nomination – if he runs – according to a survey released this past week by McLaughlin & Associates, which polled for Trump during the 2020 election cycle.
SOUTH DAKOTA'S NOEM IGNITES MORE 2024 SPECULATION
And if Trump doesn’t run, the survey suggests that former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are neck and neck at the top of a very large list.
As always, take these extremely early polls with lots of grains of salt!
Pence takes aim at Biden
The former vice president criticized the Biden administration for attempting to create a "false equivalency" between Israel and Hamas, saying he and Trump "set the table for lasting peace and an end to the decades-old conflict in the region," but that President Biden has offered "weakness and ambivalence" as violence continues.
PENCE HEADED TO NEW HAMPSHIRE IN JUNE
Pence, in a video address first obtained by Fox News on Tuesday, through his new policy and advocacy organization Advancing American Freedom, called Israel "America's most cherished ally."
DeSantis hints at 2024
The Florida governor was in battleground Pennsylvania on Thursday, receiving a a rousing reception from party activists as he headlined the Republican Committee of Allegheny County's annual Lincoln Day Dinner.
While he didn't say anything concrete about a potential 2024 run, DeSantis dropped a hint in the last line of his speech.
"I can tell you this: in the state of Florida, with me as governor, I have only begun to fight," he said.
Take two for Gillibrand?
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York was one of the first of the Democratic presidential contenders to drop out of the 2020 nomination race, suspending her campaign in August of 2019.
But Gillibrand told Politico a few days ago that "I definitely want to run for president again."
The senator highlighted that "I learned so much on that campaign: about myself, about the country, about how to be successful as a politician. I became a much better speaker and became better at my job."
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report
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