Even Fox Business host Stuart Varney has noticed Donald Trump seemed tired during his noticeably lackluster speech where he announced his 2024 presidential intentions and he couldn’t help telling Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump his perceptions about this. Even to the point of telling her,  Trump doesn’t seem to have “the old magic” anymore, Mediaite reports. Varney, the fervent Trump supporter noted:

“Those of us on the outside looking at it, it didn’t seem that he got the old magic, you know what I mean?” Varney asked her.

But Lara, who is married to Eric Trump, maintained her typically intractable Trump-supporting demeanor.

“I highly disagree with that. Look, for Donald Trump, from the very beginning, from the first day he came down the escalator in 2015 in Trump Tower, it’s never been about elected officials, politicians, people in the swamp in D.C.,” she said. “It’s been about the American people and if you look around the room last night, you had people from all different walks of life. The energy there at Mar-a-Lago was absolutely incredible. It really did to me feel like the 2015, 2016 campaign all over again.”

Later in the interview, Varney said he thought Trump could easily win the nomination and win debates with his fellow Republicans but expressed doubt that the former president could win an election. And once again, Lara Trump went on the defense.

“They know how good it was with Trump in office,” she fired back, adding “and even those who might not like his tweets and personality, I think would be much happier to pay lower gas prices, to be able to afford their groceries, and to have a better trajectory for their lives.”

But Varney isn’t the only Republican who noticed Trump’s speech was a bit of a drag. Others within the GOP also found it boring and said so on social media. The former president was also shredded by ex-Trump administration staffers, some of whom also pushed for him to postpone his announcement in light of the dismal midterm election results for Republicans.

Trump administration staffers like former White House press aide Sarah Matthews couldn’t help but note:

This is one of the most low-energy, uninspiring speeches I’ve ever heard from Trump. Even the crowd seems bored. Not exactly what you want when announcing a presidential run.

— Sarah Matthews (@SarahAMatthews1) November 16, 2022

There were also reports that security at Trump’s event stopped numerous guests who were trying to leave. If that doesn’t speak to desperation, I don’t know what does.

A crowd has formed by the exit of the ballroom as some try to leave Trump’s announcement speech before he has finished…. But security won’t let them. pic.twitter.com/O7C6QJfYgK

— Olivia Rubin (@OliviaRubinABC) November 16, 2022

Varney had similar things to say during an earlier interview with GOP strategist and GOPAC chair David Avella, notably suggesting that Trump may have lost the “old magic” here as well. But Avella, like Lara Trump, is still avidly supporting the former president and went from saying “we’re going to find out” to calling Trump the “frontrunner” in the race for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination.

All I can say is stay tuned. I’ll be shocked if Trump wins in 2024, but then I was certain that Hillary Clinton would be the sure winner in 2016 and we all know how that turned out.