Ex-President Donald Trump gave his clearest signal about 2024 yet when speaking on a podcast on Friday, saying it would be “very hard” for him not to run again. And when asked about when he will make his decision, and the announcement, Trump told the hosts that he has already made it privately.
Trump spoke with hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton from his Bedminster golf club, where this week he is controversially hosting a Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament.
The hour-long episode covered a wide array of typical Trump topics, particularly his continuing insistence that he didn’t lose in 2020. But, the MAGA hosts also asked him about his 2024 plans a few times.
“Knowing what you know and seeing what you see of Joe Biden, how do you not run in 2024?” asked Travis about midway into the hour.
“Very hard for me not to run, to be honest,” said Trump. “And also, the polls indicate that, from the Republican standpoint, it would be easy.”
He talked about polling for a minute and they moved on to the midterms. Later, Sexton circled back with the timing question.
“There are some things we just have to ask you, Mr. President. If you’re gonna announce, when are you gonna announce? Can you tell us that?” Sexton asked.
Trump said it all boils down to two words: “Is it before or after?”
His answer
Well, if I’m gonna announce, I’ll have to make a decision, is it going to be…? You know, two words: Is it before or after? And there are reasons for both. Some very good things about earlier. There’s some very good things about later. The way I look at it is if I announce early and we do well, I’ll get credit for having done well — as much as you’ll get ’cause the press won’t give you credit anyway. If I do poorly, I’ll get absolutely… It’ll be horrible. But if I announce later and we do well, I won’t get any criticized.In fact, if I announce later and we don’t do well, whether it’s before or after, they’ll blame me. In other words, if we do badly, they’ll blame me no matter what even if I had nothing to do with it. So I don’t know. I will make a decision.
He talked then about whether it’s fair to compare his unemployment numbers to Biden’s and mentioned “Russia Russia Russia” before spelling things out even more plainly still.
“I’ll make a decision fairly soon,” said Trump. “And my… I must tell you — and I think I can say this — in my mind, I’ve already made the decision.”
Listen above via The Clay