Former president Donald Trump said Thursday morning that he would be “honored” if independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed him for president.
Trump’s comment comes one day before Kennedy is expected to hold an event in Phoenix, where he will address the nation on his path forward. Kennedy is reportedly planning to drop out of the race and is considering endorsing Trump after his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, hinted at the move in a podcast interview earlier this week. Trump said he would be pleased with that outcome.
“He is a very good person. If he endorsed me, I would be honored by it. I would be very honored by it. He really has his heart in the right place. He is a respected person,” Trump told Fox & Friends in a phone interview.
“But, overall, I thought the Democrats, he was a Democrat, I don’t know what he is right now. But he was a Democrat,” he said. “They treated him very badly. I think he would have, he goes around saying he would have beaten Biden in the primary. I think there was a good chance.”
Multiple outlets reported on Wednesday that Kennedy is planning to drop out of the race by the end of the week, though he wouldn’t confirm nor deny that himself. However, sources cited in those reports indicate he plans on doing just that.
On Friday, Trump will hold a campaign rally in Glendale, Ariz., a city near Phoenix. Trump’s event adds to the speculation that he will receive Kennedy’s endorsement, considering the latter candidate is hosting his event nearby on the same day.
Despite running against each other for the past year, Trump has been relatively friendly with Kennedy, unlike President Joe Biden. Trump said Tuesday that he would “certainly” consider giving Kennedy a role in his potential second term, adding that “he’s a brilliant guy” and that “I’ve known him for a long time.”
This week, Donald Trump Jr. floated the idea of Kennedy taking on the role of potential CIA director or an oversight role for a similar government agency should the Republican nominee be reelected.
Following the failed assassination attempt on Trump’s life last month, Kennedy said he held talks with the former president in July about taking a job overseeing a portfolio of health and medical issues in a second Trump administration.
“All I will say to you is I am willing to talk to anybody from either political party who wants to talk about children’s health and how to end the chronic disease epidemic,” the vaccine skeptic told the Washington Post, adding that Trump has been more friendly toward him than the Democratic National Committee. “I have a lot of respect for President Trump for reaching out to me. Nobody from the DNC, high or low, has ever reached out to me in 18 months. Instead, they have allocated millions to try to disrupt my campaign.”
The political scion has been at odds with Democrats since he left the party last fall and launched his independent bid. He repeatedly stated that the Democratic Party shut him out of the primary process in favor of Biden, who was expected to become the Democratic nominee at the time.
On Tuesday, Shanahan said the Kennedy campaign may drop out of the race and endorse Trump for fear of the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket winning in November.
“There’s two options that we’re looking at,” Shanahan said on the Impact Theory podcast. “One is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency, because we draw votes from Trump or we draw somehow more votes from Trump. Or, we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump. We walk away from that and we explain to our base why we’re making this decision.”
She added that “it’s Bobby’s decision” and that she has his back. “And I have to say, there’s only one party that has obstructed a fair election for us, and unfortunately, it was the Democratic Party,” she said.
Before Shanahan’s comments, the Kennedy campaign was running out of momentum. Far behind Trump and Harris in the polls, Kennedy managed to raise only $5.6 million last month while burning through $7 million, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filings. The campaign has also not held a public event in over a month.