• Announcing a run would complicate the former president’s new fundraising structure and his appearances on broadcast networks 
  • But the former president constantly tells advisers: ‘I’m running’ 
  • Advisers also expressed concern that if Trump announced a run Democrats would frame the 2022 midterms around his candidacy to boost turnout 
  • The former president has dropped a series of not-so-subtle hints in recent weeks which serve as a warning for other 2024 hopefuls in the party to stand down 

Those in Donald Trump‘s inner circle had to talk the former president out of announcing his 2024 run in light of the Afghanistan chaos in August, as they convinced him it would draw attention away from the midterms and possibly hinder his TV appearances.

Such an announcement would complicate the former president’s new fundraising structure and his appearances on broadcast networks could then trigger equal time rules, advisers said, according to three sources who spoke to the Washington Post.

But the former president constantly tells advisers: ‘I’m running.’

Advisers also expressed concern that if Trump announced a run Democrats would frame the 2022 midterms around his candidacy to boost turnout.

Trump could also be held responsible if Republicans don’t take back the House and Senate if he were fighting on their behalf as a fellow candidate.

‘The biggest point we drove home was that he doesn’t want to own the midterms if we don’t win back the House or Senate,’ said one source familiar with the talks.

But the former president has dropped a series of not-so-subtle hints in recent weeks which serve as a warning for other 2024 hopefuls in the party to stand down.

‘He tacitly keeps the 2024 crowd on notice that nobody can move a major muscle until he decides what he’s doing,’ Kellyanne Conway, former Trump adviser, said. ‘As for 2024, there has been a shift from intention to urgency as he watches in horror the many failings of this administration.’

Trump knows that other GOP stars will back off once he jumps into the field, rather than trigger all-out war within the party.

Trump was confident he would beat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a Sunday interview with Yahoo Finance, even as he said  he did not think it would come down to a face-off.

‘If I faced him, I’d beat him like I would beat everyone else,’ Trump declared.

‘I don’t think I will face him,’ Trump said, predicting: ‘I think most people would drop out, I think he would drop out.’

Asked for confirmation of the report, a Trump spokesperson pointed DailyMail.com to comments from Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich, who told the Washington Post: ‘President Trump remains committed and engaged in Saving America from the disastrous leadership of the Communist Democrats,’ he wrote in an email. ‘All avenues to achieving that remain on the table.’

Trump is holding rallies much like the ones of his campaign, weeks ago traveling to Georgia, a critical swing state, and this weekend traveling to first-in-the-nation caucus state, Iowa.

His fundraising efforts have hardly let up from the days leading up to the election, though most of his appeals are directed toward independent PACs and cannot be used for a future presidential campaign.

Allies and advisers say the money is designed to ‘show strength’ ahead of 2024 and that he plans to donate some of it to candidates he has endorsed in the 2022 midterms.

Ten of 13 current and former Trump advisers said they believed he would run, two said it was a public relations ploy and one said they didn’t know, according to the Post.

Still, some Republicans are pushing for Trump to step aside and let someone else run on the GOP ticket. Many of the party’s top donors have told strategists and party leaders they do not want to see Trump run as they don’t believe he could win as the party’s nominee for the third time.

Only one president – Grover Cleveland has returned from a defeat to win a second term four years later. Trump would be 78 by the time he took office if he were to win, the same age as President Biden.

Trump, on Fox News Hannity, said of his 2024 plans: ‘We’re not supposed to be talking about it yet, from the standpoint of campaign finance laws, which frankly are ridiculous.’

‘But I think you are going to be happy. Let me put it that way.’