Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said he “absolutely” expects President Trump to run again in 2024 if he loses the current election to Democrat Joseph R. Biden.
Mr. Mulvaney, the U.S. special envoy in Northern Ireland, said Thursday that Mr. Trump is a “very high-energy 74-year-old” who will be “further engaged in 2024 or 2028 if he were to lose this next election,” The Irish Times reported.
“I would absolutely expect the president to stay involved in politics and would absolutely put him on the short list of people who are likely to run in 2024,” Mr. Mulvaney said during a webinar hosted by a Dublin think tank.
Trump family members and allies have been warning potential GOP candidates for the presidency in 2024 that they’d better fight for Mr. Trump now in his battle to contest the results in several states.
Mr. Mulvaney also backed the Trump campaign’s aggressively legal strategy of filing lawsuits in various states challenging alleged fraud in ballot-counting, and demanding recounts.
“It should not surprise anybody that there are lawyers and that there are lawsuits and it is not a tacit admission of loss, any more than it is a declaration of victory,” he said. “They are going to fight this out, and they should.”
Mr. Mulvaney said the president would relinquish power if it’s clear that he lost the election.
“If the process runs, and I expect it to run, and at the end of that process Joe Biden’s the president, you can absolutely guarantee a peaceful transition of power,” he said. “I just hope the same is true on the other side.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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