Ever since former President Donald Trump left office, his followers have looked to find the next big thing to set their sights on — and for many, that’s been the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump has now long hinted but never confirmed his interest in running.
In his first on-camera interview with Fox News as former POTUS, Trump sat down with Sean Hannity, who was quick to press him on his intentions of running in 2024 (if not much else, viewers noted of his generally doting interview).
And while a quote of Trump saying he’s “seriously, beyond seriously” considering a 2024 run has begun to circulate, it’s not exactly a clear picture of his overall answer.
On the Fox News interview that aired Monday night, Hannity phrased his question like this: “Are you running again in 2024? What are the odds?”
“First of all it’s a long time — the odds, the odds, what are the odds?” Trump began. “Look, I got tremendous numbers, nobody’s ever gotten the numbers I got, no sitting president has come even close.
There’s more popularity now than there was the day before the election because they see how bad things are at the border, they see what’s going on, they see their guns are going to be gone, their Second Amendment, their taxes are going up, regulations are going through the roof, jobs are going to go…”
All this comes before the Trump quote that’s since been most widely seen: “This is going to take a little while to show, but if they add all these regulations back, the jobs are going to be gone, your energy independence is going to be gone,” he concludes.
“So, I say this: I am looking at it very seriously, beyond seriously. From a legal standpoint, I don’t want to really talk about it yet, it’s a little too soon.”
It’s easy to hear that Trump is “beyond seriously” considering a run and assume it’s a done deal — but his overall answer indicates he’s more interested in criticizing the work of President Joe Biden than he is in mounting a campaign of his own.
Warnings of bad days to come have always been part of the Trump campaign, to be sure, but it seems that right now, Trump’s just not interested in looking ahead that far.