‘That will be it’: Trump says won’t run again if beaten in November

Polls suggest Trump and rival Kamala Harris are neck and neck in the key swing states where elections are usually decided.

Republican election contender Donald Trump has said that he will not run again for the presidency of the United States if he loses the November 5 election.

Asked if he saw himself running again in four years’ time if he is beaten by Democratic rival Kamala Harris, the 78-year-old former president told the news programme Full Measure: “No I don’t. I think that will be — that will be it. I don’t see that at all.”

The property tycoon added that he hoped he would be “successful” at the ballot box.

Polls suggest Trump and Harris, who became the Democrats’ candidate after 81-year-old incumbent Joe Biden withdrew in July, are neck-and-neck in the key battleground states likely to be decisive in determining the winner.

Trump lost to Biden in 2020 but refused to accept the defeat, claiming the election was “stolen” and fuelling conspiracy theories.

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

The Republican, who was president from 2016 to 2020, faces criminal charges over efforts to overturn the election results.

He denies any wrongdoing and has cast the indictments as politically motivated.

He has refused several times in recent months to commit to unconditionally recognising the result of November’s election.

If he were to attempt a fourth campaign for the White House in 2028, Trump would be 82.