What Donald Trump will do if he loses the US election

A former close aide to President Donald Trump has a theory about what might happen if he loses the election to Joe Biden next month.

Donald Trump will run again in 2024 if he loses next month’s election, a former close aide says.

Steve Bannon, former chief strategist who left the White House in 2017, told The Australian the election was “closer than is being ­reported” and “Mr Trump will win on election day”.

If the US President loses, however, Mr Bannon said “you’re not going to see the end of Donald Trump”.

“I’ll make this prediction right now – if for any reason the election is stolen from or in some sort of way Joe Biden is declared the winner, Trump will announce he’s going to run for re-election in 2024,” he told the newspaper.

If that happens, Mr Trump, 74, would be 78 on election day 2024 – the same age his current rival will be on Inauguration Day next year if he wins on November 3.

With just over two weeks until the election, Mr Biden is leading Mr Trump in virtually all national polls.

The Real Clear Politics average currently gives the Democratic nominee a 9 percentage point lead over the Republican incumbent.

Others have pointed out, however, that Mr Trump is polling better than he was against Hillary Clinton in 2016 in a number of key battleground states, which were crucial in securing his electoral college victory.

Both sides have been foreshadowing a messy and contested election, the outcome of which may not be known for days or even weeks.

Donald Trump branded former adviser Steve Bannon ‘Sloppy Steve’ after a falling out in 2018. Picture: Nicholas Kamm/AFP

An unprecedented number of voters – largely tipped to lean Democrat – will be casting their ballots by mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting Mr Trump to claim the election will be “rigged”.

Democratic operatives have said there is a possibility Mr Trump will appear to have won in a landslide on election night only to eventually lose after “every legitimate vote is tallied”.

Mrs Clinton has previously advised Mr Biden not to concede “under any circumstances”. Democrats have assembled an enormous legal team of more than 600 lawyers in preparation for a drawn-out legal battle.

Mr Bannon reiterated those fears, predicting the result “won’t be settled anytime soon” and would likely go to the Supreme Court.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz last month said that was one of the key reasons for pushing to confirm conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late progressive Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“Al Gore challenged the (2000) election results and for 36 days, the country was held in chaos – if Joe Biden does that again this year, an equally divided court four-four can’t decide anything,” Mr Cruz told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“That could make this presidential election drag on weeks and months and well into next year. That is an intolerable situation for the country. We need a full court on Election Day, given the very high likelihood that we’re going to see litigation that goes to the court. We need a Supreme Court that could that can give a definitive answer for the country.”

Mr Bannon told The Australian the election could even wind up in the House of Representatives in January in the event neither candidate can reach 270 electoral college votes.

The former Breitbart News executive chairman has remained a prominent supporter of Mr Trump even after being branded “sloppy Steve” amid the furore over Michael Wolff’s 2018 book Fire and Fury.

In August, he was arrested and charged with fraud over a crowd-funding campaign to build a wall between the US and Mexico.

Mr Trump tweeted on Sunday that it was “not my wall”, adding “totally unrelated, but I think Steve will be just fine”.