Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan Considered Primary Campaign Against Trump, Predicted His Nickname Would Be ‘Fat Larry’ or ‘Cancer Boy’

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Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) considered waging a primary campaign against President Donald Trump this year, he said in a new book, and considered the nicknames Trump might have given him.

“I assumed he would go with ‘Fat Larry,’ an obvious choice as I had admittedly put on some weight since my cancer battle. Or maybe ‘Cancer Boy.’ That would be a good one. But it didn’t happen,” Hogan wrote in his new book, Still Standing, released on Tuesday.

Hogan has been critical of Trump since his 2016 campaign, when he said that he voted for his own father as a write-in candidate for president rather than voting for Trump. He supported Trump’s impeachment in January, and has more recently sparred with him over the coronavirus pandemic, writing in a July op-ed that he considered it “hopeless” to wait for the president “to run the nation’s response.”

Hogan wrote in his book that he opted against running for president because he wasn’t interested in “a suicide mission” and added, “I’d really prefer not to talk about him at all. I stay focused on my job as governor. But when something rises to the level that I really disagree with, something that’s just so offensive or that directly hurts the people of Maryland, I stand up and say something.”

He also said he was “respectful” of the president, but “unlike a lot of Republicans,” he didn’t want to “blindly toe the line.”