Trump says he doesn’t think Biden will run for second term and claims he is beating his successor in the polls

‘I don’t see him running. I see her running,’ said one-time president of Kamala Harris

Donald Trump has said he does not believe Joe Biden will run again for president and described the Democrat as being “so bad”, in further remarks about the 2024 presidential election.

The former Republican president told hosts ofThe Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show on Tuesday that he did not approve of Mr Biden’s record and did not believe his 2020 opponent would run again in 2024.

“I don’t think he’s going to run, or I don’t think he’s — you know, he could run and maybe somebody would run against him, and that’s very rare, that something like that would happen,” said Mr Trump, who was beaten by the Democrat.

“There’s been so much damage done that I think if he turned out to be George Washington and Abraham Lincoln combined,” the Republican said. “I think the net result is so bad, I just don’t think he can do it.”

Mr Trump also told the podcast he did not believe Mr Biden’s 2020 running mate and vice president Kamala Harris would be liked by voters and speculated: “She doesn’t seem to be very popular in the polls.”

He added: “I was leading (in 2020). I thought I, you know, was leading a lot the day of the election, too, right. I was. But you gotta be very careful with the election. You’re gotta make sure the vote count is honest. So I don’t see him running. I see her running.”

Although recent polls have shown Mr Biden with an approval rating of 41 per cent, the figure is still higher than Mr Trump’s worst approval rating from December 2017 – when he fell to as low as 33 per cent.

The Republican – who won the presidency in 2016 but not the popular vote – also became the first president to not reach a 50 per cent approval rating. Mr Biden in comparison polled above 50 per cent for most of last year, and his administration recently issued reassurances that he would in fact run again.

Mr Trump has meanwhile refused to announce his own bid for 2024, while dropping many hints such as: “I think you’ll be happy and I think a lot of our friends will be very happy”, in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity last year about 2024 rumours.

More than half of Republican voters meanwhile still believe Mr Trump is US president – largely in the aftermath of the Republican’s long running allegations of a fraudulent 220 election. The claims are widely known as his “Big Lie”.

The wide ranging interview on Tuesday also touched on Russia and Ukraine, with many commentators expressing their outrage at Mr Trump’s praise for Vladimir Putin, who has ordered troops into Ukraine’s eastern regions.

“I went in yesterday, and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius,’” Mr Trump said. “Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine – of Ukraine – Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.”

Mr Trump famously defended Mr Putin from allegations of interference in 2016’s US election at a 2018 summit between the US and Russia in Helsinki. Fox News hosts including Tucker Carlson have more recently defended Mr Putin’s aggression towards Ukraine, a democratic country and US ally.