Former President Donald Trump is preparing to restart his MAGA ralles and said Wednesday that he will announce if he is running for president again after the 2022 midterm races conclude.
CNN reported Wednesday that Trump had initiated discussions with his advisers about restarting the rallies – despite there still being a coronavirus risk – on behalf of Republican candidates he’s endorsed, and the rallies could resume as early as May.
Then during a podcast taping for the Dan Bongino show, Trump said the ‘appropriate time’ to announce a third presidential run would be after next year’s midterm, as he also slammed a potential GOP primary rival, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, calling him a ‘total loser.’
Former President Donald Trump could restart his MAGA rallies as early as May, according to CNN, while he told Dan Bongino on Wednesday that if he was going to announce another run for president he’d do it after the 2022 midterm races conclude
Thousands of Trump supporters pack into the Southern New Hampshire University Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire in February 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic shut large gatherings down. Trump later restarted his rallies last year, but held them mostly outside
‘So I’m giving it very serious consideration,’ Trump said of another presidential run.
He said the polls in his favor were ‘very positive.’
‘Nobody’s seen anything more positive,’ he continued.
An NBC News poll this week showed Trump’s grip on the Republican Party loosening and his favorables dipping down, receiving good marks from 32 per cent of American adults.
‘If you do it, I think probably the most appropriate time would be right after the ’22 election, that’s my opinion. Could do it sooner, but I think right after the election would be good, especially if you have a good election,’ the ex-president said.
As he asked Trump about running again, Bongino had floated Trump picking a vice president early, but Trump seemingly ignored that piece of the question.
‘Now I’m not sure if you didn’t have a good election, I’m not sure that that wouldn’t be good also, if you want to know the truth,’ Trump added, suggesting if Republicans underperform in the midterms – when historically they should do well – he could swoop in to help rebuild.
Bongino tried to ask Trump what post-White House life has been like, but Trump, instead, talked about the potency of his endorsement.
‘It’s a different kind of life, but still very political because of the endorsements. Everyone comes and they all want the endorsement, more than they’ve ever wanted an endorsement. It’s never been an endorsement that’s meant so much, which is an honor to me,’ Trump said. ‘It means victory.’
CNN had more details on Trump’s day-to-day, reporting that he’s spent most of the nearly 100 days out of office at his golf course in West Palm Beach, just down the road from his Mar-a-Lago residence.
On Mondays and Tuesdays, however, he takes a break from hitting the links to speak with aides about the week ahead, including which Republican candidates he will meet with and whether they are worthy of his endorsement.
Trump has converted the bridal suite above his Mar-a-Lago resort’s massive 20,000 square-foot ballroom into his post-presidency office.
He also spends time sending out emails almost daily – the more formal ones from the ‘Office of the 45th President’ and, more often, blasts out Trump-esque ramblings from his ‘Save America’ political action committee account.
The rallies would be one way to keep his base enthused as Trump tries on the role of GOP kingmaker.
Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ rallies were the flagship of his 2016 campaign and continued through his term as president. They became key to his political movement and success with the far-right.
Thousands of cheering, riled up supporters would show up to Trump’s rallies, even in the era of coronavirus.
He has not held any such events since after his farewell address at the Joint Base Andrews hangar on January 20 before he boarded Air Force One for the last time en route to West Palm Beach.
‘It will definitely be different in terms of the setup, but we got really good at planning these events in 2020, so we will probably use a lot of those same vendors again,’ a person close to Trump’s post-White House operation told CNN.
He’s already vowed to travel to Alaska to campaign against Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is up for re-election in 2022.
Murkowski was one of the seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, which was conducted after the former president left office.
During his interview with Bongino, Trump also mouthed off about Hogan, another member of his party.
‘This guy, I’ve been watching him, he’s a total loser. He hasn’t been a good governor,’ Trump said. ‘I think he wants to run. I think I would give him less than a zero per cent chance, OK?’
Hogan came up as Trump defended his record on leading the country through the first year of the coronavirus pandemic.
‘On tape those governors said the best things about me that you’ll ever hear, the best things about me – “what a job you’re doing, thank you so much, great, great, great” – and then you’ll see one of the Democrats and sometimes a RINO like from Maryland who’s a total RINO, you’ll see him going off,’ Trump told Bongino. ‘We have them on tape saying the best things about your favorite president, Dan, that you’ve ever heard.’
Hogan publicly complained about the Trump administration’s efforts – which often left the states fighting for personal protective equipment and COVID-19 tests.
Trump also politicized mask-wearing and shutdowns and didn’t publicly receive doses of the vaccine.
Throughout his interview with Bongino, Trump continued to falsely claim he was the winner of the 2020 election – and continued to point fingers at the Food and Drug Administration and Pfizer for not releasing positive news about Pfizer’s now FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine until after the race concluded and now President Joe Biden was determined the winner.
‘This is a very unusual group of people over there,’ he said of those working for the FDA.
Trump said that while someone pointed out that the good vaccine news might have swayed the election in his favor, ‘I said no, I won the election anyway. I ran two elections I won them both, as far as I’m concerned, and we’ll see about a third.’
‘I will say you would have never, ever had a vaccine in nine months if I weren’t president,’ Trump said.
‘One thing I will say, I believe that if the vaccine came out before the election the press would have made a very small deal about it,’ he continued. ‘When it came out two days after the election the press made it like the biggest story ever.’
