Washington: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he will not be running for a fourth consecutive time for the US presidency if he loses the upcoming elections on November 5, saying "that will be it" in an interview released on Sunday. Trump, who won the 2016 elections against Hillary Clinton and lost the 2020 election against President Joe Biden, faces Vice President Kamala Harris in his third bid for the White House.
Asked if he saw himself running again in four years if he is not successful in his third consecutive bid for the White House, the 78-year-old former president told Sharyl Attkisson's "Full Measure" program: "No I don't. I think that will be — that will be it. I don't see that at all. Hopefully, we will be successful."
Polls have shown a neck-to-neck fight between Trump and Harris in key battleground states that are likely to be decisive in determining the winner, even as Harris has begun to edge up in nationwide polls. Trump launched his first reelection bid for the 2020 election the same day he was inaugurated in 2017 and announced his latest White House bid two years ago in November 2022.
Trump's allegations of fraud in 2020 election
Trump has continued to blame his 2020 loss to Joe Biden on widespread voter fraud and faces federal and state criminal charges over efforts to overturn the election results, which have not been confirmed. He denies any wrongdoing and has cast his indictments as a political attack against him while embracing increasingly dystopian rhetoric if he were to lose in 2024.
He has also launched a number of business ventures amid his latest campaign, including Trump Media, NFTs, and Trump-branded sneakers, coins and crypto. Harris, 59, meanwhile, has cast the race as a critical moment for US democracy even as she seeks to focus on kitchen-table issues such as costs for families and housing.
Asked whether the four-year break helped him regroup and figure out who he could trust as allies, Trump said: "It would have been easier if I did it ... contiguous. But the benefit is more than anything else, it shows how bad they were." Trump also said it was "too early" to make deals with people for any position in his White House cabinet should he win in November.
What about another Trump-Harris debate?
On Saturday, Harris accepted an invitation from CNN to participate in another debate with her Republican rival Donald Trump on October 23 and urges her Republican rival to face her less than two weeks ahead of the November presidential election, according to her campaign. "I will gladly accept a second presidential debate on October 23. I hope @realDonaldTrump will join me," Harris posted on X.
However, Trump stuck to his previous position that there would not be another debate before voters go to the polls in the November 5 election. "The problem with another debate is that it's just too late. Voting has already started," the former US president told supporters at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina. This came over a month after their September 10 debate, which polls agreed went in Harris' favour.
(with agency input)
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