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Trump Reacts to Haley, DeSantis, Other Potential 2024 Rivals

Former President Donald Trump responded in comments to radio host Hugh Hewitt on Feb. 2 to the possibility that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and other Republicans may challenge him for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination.

“Well, she [Haley] called me and she asked me about it, and I told her she should follow her heart,” said Trump, who announced his 2024 presidential bid last November.

“You know, she said numerous times—I put it up, actually—that ‘I would never run if our president runs. He was a great president,’ et cetera, et cetera. She said that numerous times,” he continued.

“But she’s a very ambitious person. She just couldn’t stay in her seat. And I said, you know what? Nikki, if you want to run, you go ahead and run.”

Trump nominated Haley to serve as United States ambassador to the United Nations, a post she held for two years.

Trump made the remarks after reports that Haley will announce a 2024 presidential bid on Feb. 15.

In a Feb. 1 Truth Social post, Trump had put up a clip of Haley saying she would back the former president if he ran in 2024.

“Nikki has to follow her heart, not her honor. She should definitely run!” Trump wrote.

Haley isn’t the only South Carolinian mulling a shot at the top job.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has announced a national “Faith in America” tour, set to kick off on Feb. 16 in South Carolina. Scott will also speak in Iowa, a key early state during primary season, on Feb. 22.

When asked by Hewitt if he would support the Republican candidate in 2024, even if it isn’t him, Trump said that “it would depend,” adding, “I would give you the same answer I gave in 2016 during the debates.”

In the first Republican presidential primary debate, held in August 2015, Fox News Anchor Bret Baier asked anyone who would not swear to back the eventual GOP candidate to raise their hand.

Trump famously raised his hand.

“If I’m the nominee, I will pledge I will not run as an independent. But—and I am discussing it with everybody, but I’m, you know, talking about a lot of leverage. We want to win, and we will win. But I want to win as the Republican,” Trump told Baier at the time.

During his Feb. 2 Hewitt interview, Trump claimed another potential 2024 rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, owed his election to that office to the former real estate magnate.

He cited his 2017 endorsement of DeSantis in the Republican gubernatorial contest that pitted the former congressman against the state’s agriculture commissioner at the time, Adam Putnam.

Hewitt pressed Trump on the loyalty of some possible 2024 rivals.

He asked if Trump felt DeSantis, Haley, former Trump CIA chief and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin—all discussed in the media as potential 2024 contenders—should not challenge Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination “if you [Trump] have helped them.”

“Yeah, I would say that, but I know how life works. And I know how politics works. And politics is a microcosm, but even more vicious, of life. So you know, I’ve helped all those people,” Trump responded.

Trump also told Hewitt that Jared Kushner, the husband of his daughter Ivanka, “won’t be involved” in his efforts to secure the presidency once again.

Trump also suggested that Democrats had become indistinguishable from Marxists or communists.

“The train never stopped at socialism, okay? It was supposed to stop at socialism. It just passed that. So we’re into communism, Marxism, and other things,” he told Hewitt.

READ 4 COMMENTS
  • phrowt says:

    Will someone answer this question? Why does Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution no longer apply to the office of President and Vice President (in the case of Harris)? Nikki Halley (who ran before), Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, Ted Cruz, and Kamala Harris are and were not qualified. Please produce the Birth Certificates and Naturalized Citizenship Certificates of their parents that show their qualification.

  • Karl Kocher says:

    You forgot to mention obama who in all eight years never produced a genuine birth certificate

    • Zelma says:

      And attended college as an exchange student

    • Terry says:

      You are absolutely correct. There were so many discrepancies in his birth certificate that it should have been obvious that he wasn’t an American born citizen.
      For example:
      Back in 1961 people of color were called ‘Negroes’. So how can the Obama ‘birth certificate’ state he is “African-American” when the term wasn’t even used at that time?

      Obama was born in 1961, in Kenya, but until Kenya was formed in 1963, it was known as the “British East Africa Protectorate”. etc, etc.
      So many questions, so few answers.

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