More than seven in 10 Republicans think it’s “likely” that President Trump returns in 2024 for another presidential run, a new poll has found.
The Politico/Morning Consult survey released Wednesday, taken Dec. 4-6 and surveying 1,990 registered voters, found that 75% of Republicans think Donald Trump will return. In an interesting finding, 60% of independent voters and 47% of Democrats also think Trump is likely to make another run.
Trump recently hinted that a 2024 run could be in his plans. “It’s been an amazing four years. We’re trying to do another four years, otherwise, I’ll see you in four years,” he said at a White House Christmas party.
The president was asked how he would celebrate his “last Christmas in the White House,” to which he replied: “I can’t say what’s first and what’s last, in terms of ‘Is this the last one or is this the first one of a second term?’” Trump said.
Bloomberg News has also reported that Trump has told top aides that he plans to run again in 2024. He reportedly told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Vice President Mike Pence, and National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien in the Oval Office last month that he’d run four years from now if he couldn’t overturn his Nov. 3 defeat by Joe Biden.
“If you do that — and I think I speak for everybody in the room — we’re with you 100 percent,” O’Brien responded, according to two people briefed on the conversation. Pompeo and Pence, who are both regarded as contenders for the 2024 Republican nomination, smiled but said nothing, the people said.
In November, another Politico/Morning Consult poll found that a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters would vote for President Donald Trump if he decides to run again in 2024.
Trump received 54% support of those who were asked whom they would back if the 2024 GOP presidential primary were held today, according to the poll. Compared to Trump, most other prominent Republicans barely registered, with the next-highest percentages going to Vice President Mike Pence at 12% and Donald Trump Jr. at 8%.
Should Trump end up leaving the White House on Jan. 20, 2021, there has been much speculation that he might re-emerge four years from now. Since the ratification of the 22nd Amendment in 1951, presidents have been limited to two terms, though the terms do not need to be consecutive. In the 19th century, President Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th president, the only commander in chief to serve nonconsecutive terms.
And Trump is the odds-on favorite Republican to win in 2024, according to one bookmaker.
“While still refusing to concede defeat this year, Trump’s mind may soon start tracking to 2024,” Joe Short wrote on Gambling.com last month.
“The businessman holds a huge sway over the Republican party and millions of loyal voters – so were he to decide to run again, there’s little others in the GOP could do to stop him,” Short wrote. “Trump would be 78 come the next election but has already proved the polls and betting odds wrong by winning the 2016 vote. At 10/1 it is not out of the question that the man who rocked American politics four years ago will be celebrating a second term four years from now.”
Related: Trump Odds-On Favorite Republican To Win In 2024, Bookmaker Says