OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Is Donald Trump running for president in 2024 or will he sit back and play kingmaker?
The Washington Examiner reported that former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer says Trump is gearing up to run.
“He’s in,” Spicer said during a preview interview of his upcoming book, “Radical Nation: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s Dangerous Plan for America.”
Spicer said Trump is looking beyond 2022 but will play “kingmaker” in the crucial midterm elections next November.
Spicer told the Examiner that Trump “has banked $102 million, lost weight, and has kept his approval ratings high.”
“Spicer said that the last few months of bumbles by the Biden White House, especially on Trump issues such as immigration, have encouraged the former president to look beyond the 2022 midterm elections during which he plans to be a ‘kingmaker,'” the Examiner reported.
Spicer isn’t the only former Trump official saying this.
Earlier this month, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Trump and his allies are looking to “move forward in a real way.”
Meadows said that both he and Trump were meeting with “some of our Cabinet members” as recently as that day, but he added that he was not “authorized to speak” on behalf of the former president to divulge too many details about the meeting.
According to Meadows, the meeting would not have happened at all if there were no plans to “move forward in a real way.”
“We met with several of our Cabinet members tonight. We actually had a follow-up … meeting with some of our Cabinet members. And as we were looking at that, we were looking at what does come next,” Meadows said.
“I’m not authorized to speak on behalf of the president, but I can tell you this: We wouldn’t be meeting tonight if we weren’t making plans to move forward in a real way, with President Trump at the head of that ticket,” he added.
Trump previously told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he made a decision on 2024 but did not say exactly what it was.
Trump did hint at running for office again.
“You are not going to answer, but I have to ask, where are you in the process,” Hannity said to Trump on Wednesday, regarding his decision on whether to mount another White House bid. “Let me ask you this, without giving the answer, what the answer is, have you made up your mind?”
“Yes,” Trump responded.
“If you move forward, you know how difficult it is, but you seem ready to reengage in that battle,” Hannity said later in the interview.
“It’s not that I want to,” Trump said to Hannity. “The country needs it. We have to take care of this country. I don’t want to. Is this fun? Fighting constantly? Fighting always? I mean, the country, what we have done, is so important.”
Despite being several months out of office, Trump remains the overwhelmingly most popular figure in the Republican Party, with several polls suggesting that voters would choose to elect him again if he runs for office.
Earlier this month, a straw poll taken at the Conservative Political Action Conference showed that Trump enjoyed overwhelming support from those present, holding a 70 percent lead over other opponents.
