Marco Rubio Says Donald Trump Would Be GOP's Presidential Nominee If He Chooses to Run in 2024

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said that President Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee for president in 2024 if he chooses to run again. In a new interview with Capitol Hill reporter Kellie Meyer, Rubio said that he believes Trump will be vindicated during his time out of office. He then said he believes that Trump would be strongly placed to run again in the next election.

"If the President chooses to run in 2024 he'll be the Republican nominee and I actually think he has a very good chance to win if he decides to do that. Obviously, that's way down the road," Rubio said. Rubio does not necessarily speak for the entire Republican party, or for the Republican National Convention, but his words do carry some weight. Rubio himself ran for president in 2012, and in another recent interview with NBC 6 Miami, he hinted that he would not run again in 2024 for fear of going up against Trump.

"They'll miss his frankness," @marcorubio says of Pres. Trump when I asked how he'll end his presidency.

He did so carefully. "I certainly believe if the trendline continues as it is now and he vacates the White House on the 20th of January as he'll have to if that's the case." pic.twitter.com/cLLvuM6B4c

— Kellie Meyer (@KellieMeyerNews) December 8, 2020

"If the President says he's going to run in 2024, he'll probably clear the field, he'll be the Republican nominee, and he'll spend the next four years running," Rubio said. "And then I think he would have a chance to win, not just the primary, but the general election. As we just saw, we had a very close election. It's his decision to make, but if he decides to run, I think what it means is that Donald Trump will be the next Republican nominee."

Rubio himself said that there is "work to do" in the United States Senate, hinting that he hopes to keep his job there. Meanwhile, Trump himself does not seem too eager to resume his presidential duties in 2024. In a speech on Saturday, he said Republicans will "win back" positions of power, but possibly without him.

"We are going to win back the White House," Trump said at a rally for Republican senators in Georgia. "We're going to take back the [House of Representatives] in 2022... And then in 2024, and hopefully I won't have to be a candidate, we're going to win back the White House again."

However, this qualifier might have been part of Trump's ongoing legal challenges to the 2020 presidential election itself. He later added: "I don't want to wait until 2024. I want to go back in three weeks."

Trump's presidency was historic, shattering precedents non-stop for four years, for better or worse. Whether he is vindicated and Americans come to miss having him in office as Rubio predicts, however, remains to be seen.