As Trump’s star wanes, rivals signal presidential nomination campaigns

Republicans vying for the party's nomination have taken the ex-president's midterm losses as a sign for them to step up

Potential rivals to Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination will this week be reading the runes of political fortune with their families ahead of the New Year - typically the time that nomination contenders begin to make themselves formally apparent.

Amid a lackluster start to Trump's own campaign and a string of scandals and setbacks to hit the former US president due to his links to far-right extremists and his own legal problems, a field of potential rivals is starting to emerge for a contest that only a few months ago many thought was Trump's alone for the taking.