Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has said former President Donald Trump should not seek the White House in 2024 and urged fellow Republicans to resist nominating a “cheap impersonation” of Trump in the 2024 presidential primary race.
“I don’t think he should run,” Hogan told CBS News in a recent interview at the governor’s mansion in Annapolis, Maryland. “It would be better for the party if we go ahead and look to the future.”
Hogan, 65, mocked Trump, pondering whether the 75-year-old former president would be willing to give up his retirement and risk losing another election.
“I just think he enjoys playing golf five or six days a week. I think his ego couldn’t stand to lose another pick,” Hogan said. “And I think it’s not getting any younger.”
Hogan, a possible 2024 presidential contender, also warned Republicans not to support a Trump ally in the next presidential election, arguing that it would alienate many voters.
“We don’t need Donald Trump and we don’t need someone who is a cheap Donald Trump impersonation,” Hogan said.
Asked if he would define Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a conservative who has become popular with Trump supporters, as a “cheap impersonation,” Hogan said there is “a long list of people who could fit into that.” .
“Ron DeSantis has to win his re-election first in Florida and we’ll see what happens on the 24th,” he added. “But, you know, I think we should go in a different direction.”
Hogan, a two-term Republican governor in a historically Democratic state, is attempting to carve out his own political space on the national stage during his final year in office, with speeches and endorsements across the country leaning in a traditional Republican direction.
It will likely be an uphill challenge in the party, where many elected officials and candidates continue to echo Trump’s nationalist agenda ahead of this year’s midterm elections and seek his endorsement in competitive primaries.
But Hogan said he will continue to speak out against Trump and offer another path. On Tuesday night, he will deliver a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, outlining his message to his party.
CBS News asked Hogan if there is a place for him in today’s Republican Party, which has been so dominated by Trump and his allies. Hogan responded, “I guess we’ll find out” in the next few years.
“I think there are a lot of people who are really frustrated with the direction of our party and frustrated with what is happening today in Washington with the Democratic majority,” he said. He speculated that about “35 percent” of the Republican voting base nationally is open to a break from Trump-style politics.
At this early stage of the 2024 maneuvering, Hogan is part of an informal bloc within the GOP that is seen as a possible Trump counterattack or a Trump ally in the 2024 presidential primary. That group, united by criticism of Trump and his ties to traditional Republican politics include New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who is vice chair of the House select committee investigating the attack on Capitol Hill.
Another possible rival for Hogan, should they both show up in 2024, is Hogan’s friend, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. While Christie has been a supporter of Trump, he has criticized Trump’s refusal to give in to President Joe Biden and Trump’s continued false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
Hogan predicted that those most Trump-like candidates “are going to be fishing in the same pond” in the run-up to 2024, and that could leave an “open lane” for others to gain support in the race.
Still, Hogan acknowledged that his wing might need to consolidate before 2024, should Trump or another figure win as the favorite of the populist right, perhaps with some of the more moderate or traditional candidates falling out of the running. Race to give your opinion. politics make a better chance at the nomination.
“I think we’re all just trying to see what role we can play in moving the game forward,” Hogan said of his party’s wing. “But… it would make more sense if we had some agreement on what each person is going to do and who has the best chance.”
Hogan told CBS News that if Republicans continue to embrace Trump, they risk political insanity.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result,” he said. “You know, it’s been a terrible four years for the Republican Party. We lost the White House. We lost the Senate. We lost the House. We lost governors. We lost state legislatures. And I want to win again.” .”
Hogan said he would make a final decision on a 2024 offer sometime next year.
Meanwhile, several upcoming congressional and gubernatorial primaries test Trump’s political capital — and whether Republicans who have fallen out with Trump can weather Trump’s support for their rivals.
In Georgia, Hogan is supporting incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who is facing a challenge from former Sen. David Perdue’s right wing, who has put Trump’s false claim about the 2020 election at the center of his campaign.
Hogan called Trump’s sharp criticism of Kemp and others who have not questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election “outrageous,” “absurd and ridiculous.”
Asked what statement he would send to the party if Kemp wins, Hogan said it would show that “Donald Trump is not to be feared and his endorsement is not needed to win an election.”