Donald Trump 'obviously thinking' of running for president again: Son-in-law

By Karim El-Bar

LONDON (AA) – Donald Trump is “obviously thinking” of running for president again in 2024, according to his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“Basically, I know that he’s obviously thinking about it,” Kushner said in an interview aired by British broadcaster Sky News on Friday.

“He hates seeing what’s happening in the country. He had the economy running so well. He filled the hole economically that was caused by COVID. He got us out of it with the vaccine … we had peace in Europe, peace in the world. China was on their back foot.”

Kushner asserted that the war in Ukraine “would not have happened” if Trump was still president.

However, he was unwilling to be definitive with regards to Trump’s intentions.

“Like I said, with Trump, it’s hard to rule anything out. He’s a very flexible thinker,” said Kushner, who served as a senior adviser to Trump and was part of his close circle of aides.

“He’s asked me about it. I said, ‘You know, it’s tricky.’”

Kushner’s comments come as US President Joe Biden issued a strong warning on Thursday about his predecessor’s influence on US politics and possible return to the White House.

“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” Biden said in a speech in Philadelphia, referring to Make America Great Again, a slogan Trump used in his 2016 presidential bid.

He said the Republican Party “is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans,” which poses “a threat to this country.”

- Mar-a-Lago raid

Kushner dismissed the political furor over the FBI raid last month on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where top secret documents were seized.

“This seems like it’s an issue of paperwork that should have been able to be worked out between the DOJ [Department of Justice] and him [Trump],” he said.

“I don’t know what he took or what he didn’t take, but I think right now we’re relying on leaks to the media. I’ve seen a lot of allegations made by the media over my four years that turned out not to be true.”

As the US president, Trump “had the highest clearance in the world,” Kushner stressed.

“I don’t know what was taken, why it was taken and what’s been recovered and what the ramification of that is going to be,” he said.

“So I don’t know if this may be a paperwork issue. Like I said, I haven’t been involved in the details.”