Trump hopes Meghan Markle runs for president in 2024

Ex-president said he would likely decide on running for a second term after 2022

Donald Trump hopes Meghan Markle will run for president in 2024 to make his decision on whether to run for a second term much easier.

Asked on Fox News about the Duchess meeting with Democrat operatives to consider entering politics, Mr Trump said he was “not a fan”.

“Well I hope that happens because if that happened I think I’d have an even stronger feeling toward running,” Mr Trump said.

“I’m not a fan of hers. I think that what she talks about the Royal family and the Queen, and I happen to think, I know the Queen as you know, I met with the Queen and I think the Queen is a tremendous person and I am not a fan of Meghan.”

It followed reports that Ms Markle, 39, was meeting with senior Democratic figures with the view toward a presidential bid.

Mr Trump said his own plans for 2024 will likely not be decided until after the 2022 mid-term elections. When asked directly by “Fox News Primetime” host Maria Bartiromo if he would run again, Mr Trump said he was still considering but did not rule it out.

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“Based on every poll they want me to run again but we’re going to take a look and we’ll see,” he said.

Mr Trump then said the first priority the GOP needed to focus on was taking back the House and Senate in 2022.

“Frankly, we’ll make our decision after that.”

Republicans lost control of the senate with two runoff elections in Georgia, which Mr Trump said was likely contributed to by false reporting by The Washington Post.

“It probably affected the Senate race,” Mr Trump said, before laying the bulk of the blame on Mitch McConnell.