Former President Donald Trump made a rare show of goodwill to longtime rival President Biden — insisting he is rooting for him to “succeed incredibly” for the good of the country.
“Forget politics and the Republican and the Democrat stuff, and the radical lefts and everything else — I want somebody that’s a great leader,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in a second part of an interview aired Thursday.
“I put the country first,” he said — insisting that it even stretched to hoping for success for his much-derided successor, Biden.
“I would rather have him succeed incredibly, even if it meant a much tougher [election] and maybe even a loss,’ Trump insisted, further hinting at a 2024 run.
“I want to see what’s good for this country,” he said.
Still, Trump made clear that Biden has been anything but successful.
“This country’s a mess. This country is not going to survive — the way it’s going now, it’s not going to survive,” he said.
In another show of goodwill, Trump also confirmed that he previously asked Hannity to go easier on Biden.
“I thought you were very tough” on him, Trump said — to which Hannity insisted, “I was telling the truth.”
Trump also failed to pile on his aging successor — who turns 80 in November — when Hannity said that he doesn’t “even think [Biden] knows that today’s Wednesday,” the day the interview was filmed.
“I hope he does. For the sake of this country, I hope he does,” Trump insisted.
Trump also praised other world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and even warmongering Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“These are fierce people — they’re smart, they’re tough, they don’t know about losing,” he said.
“These are very strong, smart people,” he added, saying it meant “we need our sharpest people” to match them.
As for China’s Xi, he said, “I was a very good friend of his until COVID came in, and then I gave him up.”
“It was China’s gift to us — a horrible gift,” he said of the pandemic first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan that has since killed millions worldwide.
Despite numerous hints that he planned to again run for the White House, Trump insisted he could not give an official answer yet.
“I’d love to, but I’m not allowed to legally,” he said — something that would not apply if he was definitely not running.
Hannity said most people in his position would rather just play golf and not “give up a great life” so why “go back to that hell-hole” of politics in Washington, DC.
“Because I love the country,” Trump said, again strongly hinting a planned run.
The post ‘Country first’: Trump insists he wants Biden to ‘succeed incredibly’ appeared first on New York Post.
