Former President Donald Trump is now saying he is "beyond seriously" considering another bid for the White House in 2024, but is still declining to fully commit to a campaign.
"From a legal standpoint, I don't really want to talk about it yet. It's a little too soon," Trump said during a sit-down interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity Monday. "So I say this: I am looking at it very seriously. Beyond seriously."
However, he pointed out 2024 is still "a long time" away, but he does still have "tremendous numbers" and that he had high ratings while in the White House, where "nobody has ever gotten the numbers I got. No sitting president has come even close."
And now, Trump said, "there is more popularity" than there was the day before the November election.
"They see how bad things are at the border," Trump told Hannity. "They see what is going on."
He also mentioned that there are growing concerns about the Second Amendment with Biden, adding that taxes are going up and "regulations are going through the roof."
Further, Trump said that job rates are going up, but if regulations sought by President Joe Biden's administration are added, "the jobs are going to be gone. Your energy independence is going to be gone."
Trump has been hinting strongly at running again during several other interviews and speeches, including with Newsmax TV, telling Mark Halperin during a back-stage interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February that he doesn't like to "play games" about who could defeat him for the 2024 GOP nomination, but he "can't imagine" someone else winning, should he decide to run.
"I'm not sure that anybody should be able to win, other than us," Trump told Halperin. "Look, I've done a good job for this party. We had the greatest economy in history, and then we rebuilt it a second time."
His comments came after he took the CPAC straw poll by a wide margin, with 55% of those in attendance picking him as the prospective Republican Party's 2024 presidential nominee. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in several points behind him, at 21%.
Trump also came short of committing to a 2024 race during another interview with Newsmax TV's Greg Kelly, also in February.
"I won't say yet, but we have tremendous support," Trump said. "Poll numbers are through the roof."
He also told his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, in a recent interview for her podcast "The Right View" that there is "hope."
“You do have hope. We love our country — this country. We all owe a lot to our country but now we have to help our country," he commented.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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