Trump is going to announce 2024 presidential run on Tuesday, former senior adviser says
Former President Donald Trump will announce Tuesday that he will launch a third White House bid, according to a former senior Trump adviser.
Jason Miller was interviewed Friday on former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon's podcast and asserted that Tuesday's "special announcement" would confirm Trump's early entry into the presidential field.
"President Trump is going to announce on Tuesday that he's running for president, and it's going to be a very professional, very buttoned-up announcement," Miller said, adding that a run-through of the event took place at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and country club Friday morning.
Miller added that he had talked to Trump "on the golf course" about his decision to run.
"He said, 'There doesn't need to be any question. Of course I'm running. I'm gonna do this and I want to make sure that people know that I'm fired up,'" Miller said.
In a press release Thursday night, Trump teased his possible announcement.
"President Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, will hold a special announcement at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida on Tuesday, November 15, 2022, at 9:00PM EST," the release read.
The timing of Trump's likely announcement comes as many Republicans have begun questioning whether the former president should continue to lead the party going forward. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who cruised to reelection in his home state Tuesday, has been seen by many as a politician better suited to become the 2024 GOP nominee, a notion that has clearly rubbed Trump the wrong way.
On Thursday and Friday, as Rupert Murdoch's newspapers and television stations promoted DeSantis while questioning Trump's standing, the former president was anything but "very professional" or "very buttoned-up." Instead, Trump returned to form, attacking DeSantis as well as another possible 2024 challenger, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, as beholden to him for their political success.
"Ron came to me in desperate shape in 2017 — he was politically dead, losing in a landslide to a very good Agriculture Commissioner, Adam Putnam, who was loaded up with cash and great poll numbers," Trump said in a Thursday post on his social media platform, Truth Social. "Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse him, he could win. I didn’t know Adam so I said, 'Let’s give it a shot, Ron.'"
And in a Friday post, Trump wrote, "Young Kin (now that's an interesting take. Sounds Chinese, doesn't it?) in Virginia couldn't have won without me."
Some Trump allies have reportedly urged the former president to delay his announcement until after the Senate runoff election in Georgia in December, which could, as in 2021, decide which party controls that chamber.
Indeed, on Thursday, Miller was one of those allies.
"I’ll be advising him that he move his announcement until after the Georgia runoff," Miller told the Associated Press. "Georgia needs to be the focus of every Republican in the country right now."
