Donald Trump strongly signaled he will make another bid for the White House, saying on a podcast that he would have a hard time staying away from the 2024 presidential race.
Trump, speaking on Friday's new episode of The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, said that polling showed the wind was at his back in a potential rematch against President Joe Biden. The former president dropped a few more hints to the podcast hosts over the timing of his decision about his political future, which has been the subject of speculation since he left office in 2021, before saying he has already made up his mind.
"Knowing what you know and seeing what you see of Joe Biden, how do you not run in 2024?" Clay Travis, a political commentator who co-hosts the show, asked Trump.
"Very hard for me not to run, to be honest," replied Trump, who pointed to polling that he said indicated "it would be easy." Trump added that he didn't think Biden would run for reelection.
Biden has seen his approval numbers sag amid record inflation. Earlier this week, he reached a 37.2 percent approval average on RealClearPolitics, which is lower than Trump's average approval rating during special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into alleged Russian influence on his campaign.
David Axelrod, who served as former President Barack Obama's political strategist, told CNN on Tuesday that Biden's lackluster poll numbers could cause him to not seek reelection for a second term.
The most recent RealClearPolitics polling average gives Trump a 2 percentage point lead over Biden.
Trump hinted at a political rally in Arizona last week that he would announce his decision after this fall's midterm elections.
Podcast co-host Buck Sexton, a former CIA officer turned political commentator, prodded the former president for specifics.
"If you're gonna announce, when are you gonna announce?" Sexton asked Trump. "Can you tell us that?"
Trump replied that it would come down to, "Is it before or after?"
"Some very good things about earlier," said Trump. "There's some very good things about later."
The former president added that if he announces early and does well, "I'll get credit for having done well." He added that if he does poorly, "it'll be horrible."
"But if I announce later and we do well, I won't get any credit," said Trump. "In fact, if I announce later and we don't do well, whether it's before or after, they'll blame me. In other words, if we do badly, they'll blame me no matter what even if I had nothing to do with it. So I don't know."
Trump said later in the interview that he will "make a decision fairly soon."
"I must tell you—and I think I can say this—in my mind, I've already made the decision," he said.
Newsweek reached out to Trump for comment.
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