Donald Trump rules out running in 2028 if defeated in November

Donald Trump tells a US news program he hopes to be successful in the November election but if he loses, ‘that will be it.’

Donald Trump dances on stage after speaking at a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina. Picture: Getty Images via AFP.

Donald Trump has ruled out running again in the United States’ 2028 presidential election if he loses in the upcoming November poll, according to an interview aired on Sunday.

Responding to a question on whether he would run again if he lost, the 78-year-old former president told US news program “Full Measure": “No, I don’t. I think that that will be, that will be it. I don’t see that at all.”

The billionaire did, however, say he hoped to be “successful” at the ballot box on voting day on November 5.

Mr Trump is currently neck-and-neck with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, including in the key battleground states that often decide close US elections.

The Democratic Party has seen a resurgence in support after the withdrawal of President Joe Biden as its candidate in July, following a disastrous debate against Trump.

Trump lost to Biden in 2020 but refused to accept he was defeated, riling supporters by saying the election was “stolen” and fuelling conspiracy theories.

On January 6, 2021, fervent Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt, spurred by his allegations, to stop the certification of the election result.

The Republican has notably refused several times in recent months to commit to unconditionally recognising the result of the upcoming election.

Mr Trump has also rejected a second debate against Kamala Harris before the election, saying it was “too late” with early voting already underway in some states.

Ms Harris’s campaign has said she had accepted an invitation from broadcaster CNN to participate in a debate on October 23. It would have been the candidates’ second debate, after a September 10 encounter that most pundits said she had won.

“The American people deserve another opportunity to see Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump debate before they cast their ballots,” her campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

“I hope (Trump) will join me,” Ms Harris posted on X.

Mr Trump claimed during a campaign rally in the battleground state of North Carolina that he would like to debate – calling it “good entertainment value” – but the start of early voting in some states had taken the air out of the idea.

“It’s just too late, voting has already started,” he said.

He added, to a large and enthusiastic crowd of supporters, that while CNN had been “very fair” when he debated President Joe Biden in June, “they won’t be fair again.”

AFP