Donald Trump speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. by Gage Skidmore, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0/Original

There was very little doubt Trump would run for a second term. Some of his critics on the right perhaps held out hope he’d decide not to and Mitt Romney would come riding in on a white horse, but nah. We are never going back there and it’s probably time for some to accept it.

Today, the President formally announced his re-election campaign, or better yet, he announced his coming announcement of his re-election campaign.

I will be announcing my Second Term Presidential Run with First Lady Melania, Vice President Mike Pence, and Second Lady Karen Pence on June 18th in Orlando, Florida, at the 20,000 seat Amway Center. Join us for this Historic Rally! Tickets: https://t.co/1krDP2oQvG

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2019

While I’m normally not too in to watching Trump rallies (dude’s hilarious but it’s a bit repetitive), this one is going to be grade A entertainment given its context. There’s no telling what the dude will say.

Another thing to note is that an important question appears to have been answered.

It looks like VP Pence is along for the ride again. While Trump running was a forgone conclusion, there had been some chatter that Pence might not be on the ticket again and that it would be beneficial to replace him with someone else.

I can see both sides. On the one hand, it’d be crappy to dump him as he’s not done a bad job. On the other hand, Pence adds basically nothing to the campaign. I think evangelicals are already with Trump regardless and that’s Pence’s only real draw. He reminds me of Tim Kaine running with Hillary in the sense that he’s just an after thought. A woman or someone from a swing state would be very valuable in what will be a grueling campaign.

Regardless, what’s done is done. Trump is the guy moving forward and Pence will be at his side. No pipe dream primary challenges are going to derail their path to the general election. If I’m Trump, I don’t even engage with whatever nut job Bill Kristol and company decide to put forward.

Given something unforeseen, it looks like June 18th is going to officially kick off the 2020 election season. Buckle your seatbelts. It’s going to be an insane year and a half.