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Ted Cruz says every 2024 GOP presidential hopeful is biding their time until the former president formally weighs in on running again: 'The whole world will change depending on what Donald Trump decides'

Sep 9, 2022, 21:54 IST
Business Insider
Former president Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally to support local candidates on September 3, 2022 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.Spencer Platt/Getty Images
  • Ted Cruz says 2024 presidential hopefuls have to give Trump a wide berth.
  • He says waiting is wise because Trump's decision will pretty much set the field.
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Sen. Ted Cruz said Republicans eyeing the 2024 presidential race would be fools to rush in without knowing whether former President Donald Trump plans to make another freewheeling bid for the White House.

"The whole world will change depending on what Donald Trump decides," the Texas Republican told the Washington Examiner of the waiting game he and other potential challengers face as the embattled former president drags out formally declaring for the next cycle.

Cruz, who was one of the many candidates Trump mowed through to clinch the GOP nomination in 2016, said current contenders like Trump's estranged running mate former Vice President Mike Pence and Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are delusional if they're discounting what Trump officially throwing his hat into the ring would mean.

"There are a lot of candidates out there feeling their oats and boasting, 'I'm running no matter what. I don't care what Donald Trump says.' Anyone who says that is lying," Cruz said, adding that dismissing Trump's iron grip on GOP voters is "idiotic."

Trump likes to keep everyone guessing, seeding stump speeches, social media postings, and even legal filings with hints that a 2024 campaign could launch at any minute.

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Chris Christie, a former Trump ally now among the ranks of those with designs on making Joe Biden a one-term president, has spent months telling anyone who'll listen that Republicans "have to be the party of tomorrow, not the party of yesterday" if they want to remain relevant.

Others working to carve out a post-MAGA lane without directly antagonizing the twice impeached and possibly soon-to-be-indicted former POTUS include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Rick Scott of Florida, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and former Trump appointee Nikki Haley.

Trump, who's waging legal battles regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the deadly siege at the US Capitol, and the recent raid at Mar-a-Lago, recently tried to tamp down challenger talk by touting that even amidst all those investigations he's still polling higher than DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin among the MAGA faithful.

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