Former President Trump is the only Republican to have officially entered the 2024 White House race—and he won't commit to supporting any other GOP candidate if they end up winning the nomination. The former president told conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that it "would have to depend on who the nominee was," the New York Times reports. In 2015, Trump signed a GOP loyalty pledge, but later said he no longer planned to "support whoever the Republican nominee is." At the same town hall event in March 2016, rival candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich also declined to commit to supporting whoever became the GOP nominee. "We're going to beat him," Cruz said of Trump.
Before Trump's remarks, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a frequent Trump critic, told Hewitt he would support whoever became the party's nominee in 2024—though he added that he didn't think it would be Trump. Potential Trump rivals include former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is expected to announce a White House bid later this month, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been strongly criticized by Trump in recent weeks, with the former president describing a possible DeSantis run as "a great act of disloyalty."
Trump told Hewitt that Haley called him to ask about running, and he "told her she should follow her heart," the Washington Post reports. Asked whether he thought people he has "helped" in the past, including Haley and DeSantis, should stay out of the race, Trump said, "Yeah, I would say that, but I know how life works, and I know how politics works. Time goes by, and then they want to run, because they’re ambitious people. But you know, they’re polling very poorly." (More Election 2024 stories.)
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