2024 is going to be a dumpster fire of a year for US politics

• 2023 was a chaotic mess.
• Next year's calendar is already jam-packed with primaries and trial dates.

2023 has been one for the books.

Between a prolonged fight to choose a House speaker, a second prolonged fight to pick a new speaker after the first one got sacked, responding to a war in Gaza, funding an ongoing war in Ukraine, a near-government shutdown, a months-long block of military promotions, George Santos, 91 felony charges levied against former President Donald Trump, and GOP presidential hopefuls looking to make a name for themselves against Trump in the coming election, it's been a chaotic year for American politics.

Unfortunately, 2024 isn't shaping up to be any less hectic as next year's calendar has already filled up before the year's even begun.

Two overarching stories are poised to shape 2024's news coverage: Trump's slew of legal battles and the presidential election itself, where it seems all but certain he'll be the Republican nominee taking on President Joe Biden in a rematch of the 2020 election.

Trump is once again set to take the spotlight

The embattled former president is currently embroiled in a slew of legal battles in Georgia, New York, Washington, DC, and Florida over alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, a hush-money scheme with a porn star, and mishandling classified information.

The first major trial of 2024 for Trump, outside his ongoing legal battle in New York regarding the valuation of The Trump Organization, is set to begin in Washington, DC, in March, just one day before the "Super Tuesday" presidential primaries.

He's then scheduled to appear for his Florida classified documents trial in May and possibly the Georgia elections case in August.

Trump's legal proceedings will play an incredibly large influence on the 2024 election at large. If convicted and sent to prison, he could still technically run for president, but the GOP may ultimately deem it a better idea to coalesce around a different candidate altogether.

The former president and his legal team have argued that as president of the United States during the January 6 insurrection, he has absolute immunity from being prosecuted for his actions — though at least one judge has already shut down the defense.

Special Counsel Jack Smith recently petitioned the Supreme Court to rule on Trump's immunity claim to try and put a definitive end to it. The Supreme Court has since agreed to deliberate on the matter, and quickly.

Positioning for second place

Though Biden and Trump appear to be the clear presidential nominees for their respective political parties, a handful of Republican candidates are still battling it out to see who'll likely end up in second place.

Once considered the leading challenger of Trump's in the race, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has sunk in polls over the past few months as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's slowly risen and is on pace to overtake him.

Several of the remaining GOP candidates will likely remain in the race for several more months to see if they can capitalize on the unlikely event Trump drops out and a power vacuum emerges for the Republican nomination.

Primary elections will occur until mid-June, about a month before the GOP's official nominee is crowned at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Government funding… again

Traditionally, it's usually in the latter months of the year when members of Congress debate and quarrel about funding the US government. After becoming speaker of the House in late October, Mike Johnson led Congress to pass — and Biden to sign into law — an odd funding approach.

Under Johnson's leadership, the government is funded until the end of 2023, however, Congress now has until mid-January to fund the military and until February to fund several other key government agencies.

The plan, which has been called the "craziest, stupidest thing I've ever heard of" by one senator, means that the already-fractured House will have to reach an agreement on several occasions just to keep government employees paid.

Republicans are looking into Biden and his family

After the House twice voted to impeach Trump, congressional Republicans have looked to impeach Biden and prosecute his son, Hunter, in response.

Republicans in the House voted earlier in December to launch an impeachment inquiry into the Democratic president. If the inquiry returns any information GOP investigators deem worthy of impeachment, the House and Senate could hold publicized hearings and trials on the matter, similar to Trump's impeachment in 2019.

And federal prosecutors recently charged Hunter Biden with evading $1.4 million in taxes about the same time House Republicans subpoenaed him to testify in a deposition behind closed doors.

With these investigations and proceedings into the Bidens already underway, they'll likely continue to come into play in the 2024 calendar year.

The vast majority of newsworthy moments in politics in 2023 were unplanned and unpredictable, and the year ended up being one of the most chaotic non-election years in recent US political history.

2024 is already looking like it'll easily match the jam-packed year of news that 2023 shaped up to be.