Trump '100 Percent' Thinking About Running Again in 2024

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he's "100%" thinking about running again for the White House, and would consider popular Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a running mate.

Voters "love that ticket. Certainly, Ron would be considered. He's a great guy," told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo in a wide-ranging interview.

While he continues to rail about the 2020 election results and insist he was the rightful winner over now-President Joe Biden, he thinks a 2024 campaign will be "very successful."

"The polls show it and everybody wants me to do it," Trump said. "One hundred percent, I'm thinking about running and we will I think be very successful. We were very successful."

He pointed out that he ran for office twice, and in the 2020 election "got 12 million more votes than the first time which very rarely happens for a president. I got the largest number of votes in the history of our country for a sitting president. And I was told if I got 66 million, you couldn't lose. I got 75 million."

Trump went on to call the 2020 election a "disgrace to our country," but recalled that on the night of the election, "at 10:30 in the evening, everyone thought the election was over and that we had won. All of a sudden late in the night they closed up the tabulation centers and they came out with new numbers. This election is a disgrace to our country. And the whole world knows it and they're watching."

He insisted later in the interview, "we did far better in the election. We got 75 million votes and I'll tell you what, that election was won by us. It was not won by Biden."

Meanwhile, Trump encouraged Republicans to "have courage" and "keep fighting."

"It's going to happen," he said. "We're going to turn it around. They've gone too far. They can't get away with this. We can't allow them to get away with this. They're destroying our country. Have courage. It's going to happen. I'm with you."

He also insisted that he is "very, very strongly times 10 considering what to do (and) what everybody wants me to do."

But he said that if he announces too early, "that has a big impact on fundraising and many other things. It's a little bit of a crazy, complex thing. The whole fundraising contribution stuff is ridiculous; the laws are so archaic and stupid, frankly."

Trump insisted he is "so committed to this country, like frankly never before," and he believes that Democrats have "gone too far."

He also railed agains the use of Attorney General Merrick Garland's office and with local attorneys general, particularly after the FBI raid at his former attorney Rudy Giuliani's apartment on Wednesday.

"Going after the Rudy Giulianis of the world when you have murderers pouring into this country on our southern border, murderers, rapists, and terrorists and people - by the way, people coming from the Middle East too. Not just the countries we discuss. They're coming in from Yemen and various countries, countries from the Middle East, and this is just starting. It's a horrible thing. Have faith. We're going to bring it back. We cannot allow them to get away with what they're doing."

He also told Bartiromo that he would consider Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a running mate. The Florida governor's name has come up on many potential lists for mounting a 2024 presidential campaign, but Trump on Thursday praised him as governor.

"I endorsed Ron and after I endorsed him he took off like a rocketship," said Trump. "He's done a great job as governor. I'm saying what I read and what you read, they love that ticket. Certainly, Ron would be considered. He's a great guy."

Trump said that if he runs for the White House, he'd include protecting the Second Amendment on his agenda, as well as fighting the "biggest tax increases" that Biden wants to put in place.

"You're going from the biggest decrease to the biggest increase in history," he said. "It's going to be a shock to all people, not rich people, all people. So they're giving the biggest tax increase in history, it's going to destroy the economy."

He also said the border situation has to be returned to "where I had it."

"We had it the best in the history of our country, and the wall would have been finished very quickly," he said. "They have to finish the wall. I would have had it finished two years ago except that I got sued all the time, every time we made a move we got sued. It took two-and-a-half years to win all the lawsuits. I won the lawsuits. We built the wall. It is almost complete."

Trump also said he wants to return the country to energy independence.

"Your gasoline prices, look at what's happening to them," he said. "I had them down below $2, and we still had a strong energy industry. Now they're laying everybody off. Why do they lay them off? Look at the pipeline. The heads of that union should be fired...their union heads always support a Democrat so they supported Biden. Those union heads should be fired by all those people that don't have a job."