Trump tells advisers he will launch 2024 run as soon as Biden certified winner: Reports

President Donald Trump has reportedly told his aides that he would announce his candidacy for 2024 as soon as Democrat Joe Biden is certified the winner of the November 3 election.

Trump has yet to formally concede the 2020 race to Biden, claiming that widespread voter fraud has occurred in key battleground states.

However, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Axios have reported in recent days that the president is privately discussing his plans to run again in 2024 with those close to him.

“He knows it’s over,” one adviser told the Times on the condition of anonymity.

Trump’s advisers told the paper that the president has no masterplan to fight an ultimate defeat, but is instead hoping to keep his base of supporters energized once he leaves the White House.

The Trump campaign has mounted multiple legal challenges in an effort to reverse the outcome of the election. Attempts in Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania have already been either dropped or denied.

Several of the president’s advisers told him on Wednesday that his chances of succeeding in courts were extremely low.

A potential announcement of candidacy by Trump would pose a serious challenge to rival Republicans with an eye on 2024. They are worried that Trump can secure the nomination again if he really wants it.

John Kasich, the former governor of Ohio who campaigned for Joe Biden, and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who along with Kasich challenged Trump for the 2016 nomination, are reportedly pondering a run in 2024.

Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley has long been rumored to have her eye on the White House. Donald Trump Jr is also viewed as increasingly keen to carry his father’s mantle into the future.

In his first public remarks since his defeat was announced, Trump came the closest he has come to acknowledging that Biden could succeed him.

Trump: Time will tell which administration takes office in January

US President Donald Trump says that "time will tell" which administration will take office in the White House in January.

The president told reporters on Friday that “time will tell” if another administration takes office in January and imposes a nationwide lockdown to combat the coronavirus pandemic. “I guess time will tell. But I can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown.”

Biden was proclaimed the winner of the election last Saturday, a result Trump has refused to accept.

Several former and current Republican officials have lambasted the president for refusing to help with the transition to a Biden administration, warning that the delay carried national security risks.

The Biden advisers have grown increasingly concerned as the president-elect has yet to receive briefings on national security matters and the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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