by Former President Trump could run for president by the end of the year, according to Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump’s top advisers and his 2016 campaign manager.
In an interview Friday with CBS News, senior investigative correspondent Kathryn Herridge asked whether Trump, who has said he plans to run again, would announce his candidacy after the midterm elections — by Thanksgiving — Conway he replied, “Well, he would.”
“He’s as active as anyone in this midterm election. That’s also important to the reckoning, Katherine, because we have the most ironic, if not unprecedented, situation right now,” Conway said. “We have a president, a current president, whose party doesn’t really want to campaign with them.”
“I think once these midterms are over, President Trump can evaluate the timing of his announcement,” Conway continued. “I’ll tell you why he wants to run for president — Donald Trump wants his old job back.”
Never Conway spoke with Herridge in July, said her advice to Trump was to wait a few months. Conway, the first woman to run a successful presidential campaign, served as an adviser to the former president for most of his term.
“My advice to the president in private is my advice to him in public, which is, ‘If you want to announce, wait until after the midterms,'” he said this summer.
As she suggested in July, Conway reiterated that she feels that Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate currently dealing with the devastation Hurricane Ian, it should wait to run. Completing two terms as Florida governor, he said, would better position DeSantis for a future presidential run. “He’s got the skills, he’s got the temperament, he’s got the moxie and he’s got the commitment to do it,” Conway told Herridge.
“Many of his generational peers would be in the United States Senate,” Conway continued. “Well, if he’s running against a Ted Cruz or a Rand Paul or a Marco Rubio, say Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and others, Ron DeSandis, his argument is that you were in the United States Senate, sometimes in minority party, sometimes in the majority party, but what do you have to show for it? They should answer these questions. He will say, I was the governor of the third largest state. Look what I’ve done.”
He dismissed the idea that Trump and his political team are worried about competition from DeSandis in 2024 — “I don’t think so, no,” he said. “They’re friends, they’re allies. I think people want Ron DeSandis and Donald Trump to be two scorpions in a bottle.” He added: “It just isn’t.”
The interview with Conway airs on CBS News Streaming on Friday.
Grace Kazarian contributed reporting.
Kathryn Watson
