Former Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Friday that former president Donald Trump should wait until after the Georgia Senate runoff to formally announce his 2024 presidential bid.
“I think it would be terrific if my former boss Donald Trump put his own political plans on hold just until we get through the ‘Herschel First’ operation — that’s Dec. 6th,” said Kudlow, who served as Director of the National Economic Council under Trump. (Kudlow has also been a longtime contributor to this magazine.)
Control of the Senate hinges on the race in Nevada between Republican Adam Laxalt and Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and the race in Georgia between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. The race in Georgia is headed to a runoff next month after neither candidate secured 50 percent of the vote.
Trump said earlier this week that he will make a “big announcement” on November 15 at Mar-a-Lago, which many expect will be an announcement that he is running for president again.
Kudlow said that “a number of leading politicians have talked to me and suggested the wisdom that President Trump would unlock a good chunk of his own PAC money to assist in the ‘Herschel First’ operation.”
“Now is not the time for all kinds of finger-pointing and blame-gaming. Now’s the time for some party unity for a change, to push Herschel Walker over the goal line and into the end zone,” Kudlow said.
However, Trump attacked Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell on Friday over the GOP’s dwindling chances of retaking the upper chamber after Republican Blake Masters lost the race for U.S. Senate in Arizona.
He also took shots at two likely 2024 contenders, Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin.
On Friday, Trump claimed responsibility for Youngkin’s win in Virginia in 2021.
“Young Kin (now that’s an interesting take. Sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?) in Virginia couldn’t have won without me. I Endorsed him, did a very big Trump rally telephonically, got MAGA to Vote for him- or he couldn’t have come close to winning. But he knows that, and admits it,” Trump wrote on Truth social.
Trump lashed out at DeSantis one day earlier after the New York Post published covers criticizing Trump and lauding the Florida governor.
“NewsCorp, which is Fox, the Wall Street Journal, and the no longer great New York Post (bring back Col!), is all in for Governor Ron DeSanctimonious, an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations, who didn’t have to close up his State, but did, unlike other Republican Governors, whose overall numbers for a Republican, were just average — middle of the pack — including COVID, and who has the advantage of SUNSHINE, where people from badly run States up North would go no matter who the Governor was, just like I did!” Trump said in a statement.
Trump went on to say that his endorsement of DeSantis in 2017 served as a “nuclear weapon” going off, propelling DeSantis to the top of the GOP primary for Florida governor.