Trump Denies Rumors He Isn’t Interested in Second Term: ‘I Want it With All My Breath’

Mandel Ngan/Getty Images

President Donald Trump is fully committed to winning reelection, he said in an interview published Wednesday, and believes Republicans need to get tough if they want to win in November.

“If the Republicans don’t toughen up and get smart and get strong and protect our heritage and protect our country — I think they’re going to have a very tough election,” Trump said in the interview with RealClearPolitics. With respect to winning his own race, he added, “I want it with all my breath, with every ounce of what I represent.”

Some observers have speculated Trump is uninterested in a second term, particularly after Fox Business host Charles Gasparino wrote in a June 28 tweet that “major players” among Republicans told him that Trump might drop out if his poll numbers failed to improve. Democratic strategist James Carville said last week he believed there was a “significant chance” of that scenario playing out.

Two days after Carville’s remark, Trump delivered a Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore where he accused Democrats of engaging in “a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.” The speech met with wide acclaim from conservatives, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who called it “probably the single best speech” the president ever delivered.

Trump said in the interview that he was going to stick with that message and his improvisational style through the election. “My instincts have been right,” Trump said. “I follow my instinct. I follow the brain; the brain has gotten me far.”