Former President George W. Bush predicted a dim future for former President Donald Trump’s political career in a taped interview broadcast Thursday, saying that “these populist movements begin to fritter over time.”
Bush delivered remarks in a taped interview shown at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the 2020 election and the future of American democracy, USA Today reported.
Although out of office and banned from Twitter, Trump appears to have maintained influence over the GOP during the early days of the Biden administration. Trump won the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll by a wide margin, earning 55% of the votes while the second-place finisher, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, came in at 21%.
Trump has been noncommittal about running for president for a third time in 2024, but has repeatedly floated the possibility and has left the door open for launching a bid.
Bush added that he does not believe that the 2020 election was stolen and that he views Joe Biden as a legitimate president.