Donald Trump may not be planning to run for re-election in 2020, a campaign adviser and longtime confidant claims.
Though Trump began campaigning for the 2020 election seemingly within days of taking office — raising money and appearing at a series of campaign rallies — there is some lingering question of whether he would want a second term. Roger Stone, a longtime political adviser to Trump, suggested in a recent interview that Trump may simply decide to call it quits so he can spend more time on the golf course if he believes his agenda has been accomplished.
In an appearance on the Howley Report s show, Stone said it is not a “foregone conclusion” that Donald Trump will seek re-election.
“If at the end of the next three years the economy is very strong, he has built the wall, sealed our borders, he’s reformed our immigration policies, he has redone these trade agreements so that they are beneficial to the United States, that he has got a peace agreement in Korea — I could see him saying, ‘You know what? I don’t need this anymore. I made America great again. I have kept my promises to the American people. I’m heading off to the golf course.’ ”
Stone suggested that Vice President Mike Pence and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley could be planning a run in 2020, and said he would be ready to have a candidate to challenge them. There have been reports of conflicts between Haley and Trump, which came to light after Haley announced new sanctions on Russia and the White House quickly backtracked her remarks, claiming she “misspoke.”
“With all due respect, I don’t get confused,” Haley said in a statement in response.
There is a chance that Donald Trump could face competition from within the Republican Party, even if he does decide to run for president again in 2020. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, one of Trump’s most vocal critics in the Republican Party, said in an appearance on Meet the Press that he believes Trump should get a primary challenger in 2020.
As The Hill noted, there have been rumors that the retiring Flake could be the one to challenge Trump, and stoked suspicions that he could be planning to run with a trip to the key early voting state of New Hampshire.
https://twitter.com/SaszeSoul/status/998040900675817477
While Roger Stone has hinted that Donald Trump may not run for president in 2020, Trump himself has shown no indication that he plans to quit after one term.
