Trump should run as a ‘martyr’ in 2024 with a goal of getting impeached a third time, ex-campaign manager says

'If they only impeached you twice, you need to run again. Because to change the system you have to kick it in the ass'

Donald Trump’s ex-campaign manager urged him to run again in 2024 as a proudly twice-impeached former president and living “martyr” — with the goal of being impeached once again — in a series of tweets on Saturday. 

Brad Parscale, who was removed from his position on the Trump campaign amid controversy over low polling numbers and poor turnout at an Oklahoma rally, offered the former president some free advice in a statement he posted to Twitter which read in part: “If they only impeached you twice, you need to run again. Because to change the system you have to kick it in the ass.”

In a follow up tweet, Mr Parscale wrote: “If Trump asked me how to win again. I would run on being impeached twice. They are about to give him super powers. They just aren’t smart enough to see it. It’s why we laughed at Mike Tyson in the Hangover. They just don’t get it yet. They are about to make him a martyr.”

Mr Parscale fell out of the former president’s favour along the 2020 campaign trail and was fired by Mr Trump in July, before facing what he described as personal and political stress that eventually led to his arrest in Florida later that summer. His wife, who called the police on Mr Parscale on the night of his arrest, later retracted an allegation of abuse. 

Speaking with Fox News after his arrest in December, Mr Parscale said he loved Mr Trump and was “hurt” to have been removed from the campaign. 

On Saturday, it seemed he was eager to get back on the campaign trail with the former president, who has reportedly mulled the idea of launching another bid for the White House following his defeat in the 2020 elections. 

In his statement to Mr Trump, the ex-campaign manager wrote: “I’m in. Are you?”

Mr Trump was impeached again in January, making him the first president in American history to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives. Should he face a conviction during his impeachment trial in the Senate this week, there would be a path for Congress to bar him from ever holding public office again.

However, it’s extremely unlikely Mr Trump will face a conviction after 45 Republican senators voted against holding the trial after he left office.

Democrats would require 17 Republican votes in order to convict the former president for fomenting the deadly riots at the US Capitol last month as Congress convened to certify the election results. 

It remains unclear whether Mr Trump, who has been removed from Twitter and other social media platforms for continuing to promote false claims of voter fraud as rioters besieged the Capitol, will run again in 2024. Several recent reports have indicated former Vice President Mike Pence and former Ambassador Nikki Haley were also considering presidential bids.