CLAY: Donald Trump did an interview with New York Magazine. Now, I want to be clear. I haven’t read the full interview yet. But Trump said in that interview, “I’ve already made the decision” about whether he’s going to run in 2024, and I think Buck Sexton and I have been quite clear with all of you that we would be stunned beyond belief if Donald Trump is not running in 2024. But here’s a direct quote from that magazine interview.
Trump says, “I would say my big decision will be whether I go before or after the November midterms” in terms of his announcement. Now, my hope, Buck, is that Trump does not announce that he is officially running for president until after the midterms. And that’s because Democrats have virtually nothing that they can run on in terms of accomplishments. And I think you would agree with me, Buck, that if Trump announces before the midterms, it’s not even about a referendum on Biden. They’ll try to turn the midterms into a Donald Trump show as opposed to a referendum on their own performance.
BUCK: And let’s also look at the cold, hard political calculation here as well. If Trump doesn’t announce before, it will be interesting to see what the response is or what the feeling is after what could be the biggest Red Wave receives in decades. Republicans possibly, especially when you add in governor’s mansions. The GOP is gonna have, I think — is on track to have — something like 31 or 32 governor’s mansions after this election, which is the highest it’s been in a little while.
It doesn’t… I’ll check and see what the all-time record is. But what is the storyline if Trump is not a part of this election in a major way and the GOP actually does better than it has done or is in a better position than it’s been in a long time? For some people they would say, well, that’s irrelevant and Trump will be great and he’ll be the leader that the party, you know, could use at this moment now that it’s so unified.
I think other people, though, will be saying, “Well, hold on a second here,” and so that’s… If Trump wasn’t announced before, why do we think that we would need to have Trump to be the leader of the party after such a Red Wave? Are there any other people that are gonna be in consideration? So, I think that will be an interesting conversation. I also think that that’s part of the calculation being made right now, to announce before or to announce after. Right?
CLAY: Yeah.
BUCK: One way or the other.
CLAY: I think that’s all in play.
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