He’s back.
Only days after saying that he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of re-entering the 2012 presidential contest, Donald Trump appears to be fueling speculation that he could rejoin the race next spring, possibly as an independent candidate, according to POLITICO’s Maggie Haberman.
Trump, who had been testing the waters for a possible bid for the Republican presidential nomination before abandoning those plans on May 16, has reportedly sent emails to people who joined two websites promoting a Trump-for-President draft, hinting that a 2012 presidential campaign was still a possibility. He also sent notes to Fox News contributor Juan Williams and MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell — one of his sharpest critics on cable television — saying, “See you in the spring.”
The wealthy real estate developer and reality television personality had briefly toyed with the idea of running as an independent while openly exploring a possible bid for the Republican nomination.
Trump also recently spoke with ballot access expert Richard Winger, publisher of Ballot Access News, about what it would take to get on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate in all fifty states.
Trump’s latest tease, however, directly contradicts what he told guest host Martha MacCallum of the Fox News “On the Record” program on May 9.
During that interview, Trump said that running as an independent would “be a very dangerous thing to do.”
Acknowledging that a lot people wanted him to run as an independent, Trump dismissed the idea. “The problem is, I’m very conservative,” he told MacCallum. “If I ran as an independent, I would take tremendous votes away from the Republican candidate. That would assure Obama’s election, and that would not be a good thing.”
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