Republican leaders sound alarm about former President Donald Trump’s potential presidential bid in 2024.
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R–WI) spoke out Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” against the possibility of a Trump presidential candidacy in 2024, warning it would be a “disaster” and “dangerous.”
“It is a disaster if we nominate Trump,” Ryan said, pointing out that the GOP has not won an election with Trump on the ballot since 2016. “I don’t think he’s fit, and I don’t think he could win.”
Ryan’s comments come one day after Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (R–WY) said Trump’s candidacy in 2024 “is something we have to take very seriously and stand against” during a discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival.
“There can be a tendency for people on the Democratic side to say, ‘Well, look, sure, the Republicans will nominee him. The Republicans are a mess, but we’ll be able to beat him in a general,’” Cheney warned. “That is playing with fire. It’s a risk we can’t take.”
Trump has been fiercely critical of traditional Republican leaders from the moment of his election in 2016. But more recently, he has become a hero of the GOP base, and many believe a Trump candidacy in 2024 could wreak havoc on the party in the coming years.
“I’m a Never Again Trumper,” Ryan said. “So, obviously, the 33 percent base doesn’t like a person like me.”
However, the former House speaker is not alone in sounding the alarm about a Trump candidacy. Other Republicans have expressed similar sentiments, including Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R–IL), who said he’d rather see someone “we can actually elect from our party” in 2024 and Rep. Fred Upton (R–MI), who was initially skeptical but has since said he would “absolutely” support Trump’s renomination.
Trump, for his part, has kept speculation about a 2024 run alive, saying he will make a decision later this year and teasing the possibility at his recent speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
But for now, conventional wisdom in Republican circles is that a Trump candidacy in 2024 would be a huge gamble for the GOP. Whether that counsel is enough to quell the rumors and deflect a potential challenge remains to be seen.
