Mary Trump recently remarked that the former president may “pretend” to run in the 2024 presidential election in order to cash in on his bid, since his loss to US President Joe Biden turned out to be quite lucrative.
In a Monday interview with MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan, Trump indicated that her uncle would likely continue to tease his presidential bid because he had raised large sums of money from devoted supporters, even after he lost the highly contested election.
“I think he’s going to pretend [to run], for sure,” she told Hasan. "Think about how much money he's made off the big lie the last few months. He's made more money since President Biden won the election than I think he has in his entire life.”
“I don't think he's going to let that grift go quite so soon,” Trump remarked.
An investigation conducted by The New York Times after the election was called for Biden reveals that the former president managed to raise roughly $170 million by the end of November 2020. Of the funds, the majority was reportedly collected in the first week after Election Day.
However, the Times’ probe also determined that while fundraiser efforts stated collections would go to a so-called “Election Defense Fund,” it was later revealed that 75% of the donations were actually being transferred to another account that would be used to fund the New York native’s future political endeavors.
Similar findings were also reported by The Washington Post, which indicated at the time that Trump’s post-election fundraising efforts saw upwards of $170 million.
Trump further told Hasan that her uncle would more than likely not become the Republican nominee over fears that he could lose his second bid to regain the White House. “There’s no way that he is going to put himself in the position of losing again,” she said.
The latest commentary came a day after the former president hinted at tossing his name into the 2024 bid during a speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday.
Marking his first public remarks since leaving the White House, the former commander-in-chief stated that “it is far from being over,” and that he “may even decide to beat them for a third time.” The speech saw the current Florida resident reiterate claims that he “won” the 2020 election, which was called for Biden when he managed to win 306 electoral votes.