September 22, 2024

“I think that that will be it,” he said. “Hopefully we’re going to be successful.”

by Julianne McShane
News & Engagement Writer

    Is the end in sight?

If Trump loses to Vice President Kamala Harris in November—which is a real possibility, if recent polls are accurate—he does not plan to run again in 2028, he said in an interview that aired Sunday.

“No, I don’t,” Trump told Sharyl Attkisson, host of Full Measure, when she asked if he thinks he would run again in four years if he loses the next election. “No, I don’t. I think that that will be it. I don’t see that at all. Hopefully we’re going to be successful.”

Is he serious? Time will tell… but don’t hold out hope: While Trump appeared to (finally) recently acknowledge he lost the 2020 election—as dozens of court cases affirmed—he quickly walked that back at the debate against Harris earlier this month, telling the moderators that he was being sarcastic. “I don’t acknowledge [losing] at all,” he added.

If Trump does back out of running for president again in the future, many in the GOP will be thrilled.

As I have covered, scores of onetime high-level Republican officials have been openly defecting from the party, announcing their plans to vote for Harris over Trump—including many former Reagan, Bush, and Trump staffers. On Sunday, more joined in, signing a bipartisan open letter endorsing Harris over Trump, writing, “Vice President Harris defends America’s democratic ideals, while former President Donald Trump endangers them.” Of the more than 700 current and former national security officials who signed on, more than 180 are Republicans or independents, which includes some who changed their affiliation after Trump took the reins of the GOP, according to one of the organizers.