Trump Aide Says Mar-a-Lago Proprietor is ‘Missing Being President Terribly’
An aide to former President and current Florida resort proprietor Donald Trump says talk of a presidential run is driven by the fact that the ex-prez misses “being president terribly.”
Since leaving office under the cloud of the Capitol insurrection, Trump’s audiences have often consisted of guests at his Mar-a-Lago resort, but according to Politico Playbook, he longs to return to being president, terribly. Aides say Trump bristles at the suggestion that chatter about running for president isn’t in earnest:
As for Trump, his first reaction to the grand jury news was his default — it’s a political witch hunt. But how can it be a political witch hunt if he’s not in the game anymore, you ask? Simple: Float another run for president. “Interesting that today a poll came out indicating I’m far in the lead for the Republican Presidential Primary and the General Election in 2024,” he said in a statement responding to the news. His aides say his interest in running isn’t just a defense tactic — “he’s missing being president terribly,” one said. Others have said that he gets angry when questioned if he’s really serious.
The newsletter also reports that the announcement of a grand jury investigation of Trump’s businesses — which prompted a lengthy statement from Trump lashing out at the probe — has some folks in Trump’s orbit nervous:
“There’s definitely a cloud of nerves in the air,” one adviser said, adding that this feels different than the typical barrage of legal issues surrounding Trump because there is pressure on Trump Org CFO ALLEN WEISSELBERG to flip. “I think the Weisselberg involvement and the wild card of that makes the particular situation more real, because there’s no sort of fluff and made-up fictional circumstances around the guy. … The fact that they’re dealing with a numbers guy who just has plain details makes people more nervous. This is not a MICHAEL COHEN situation.”
Trump still leads a wide hypothetical Republican primary field, with 63 percent of GOP voters saying they’ll definitely or probably vote for Trump in 2024 in a recent poll, while in another recent poll, current President Joe Biden leads Trump by 12 points in a hypothetical 2024 general election.
