While all signs are pointing to him getting back to a 2024 presidential campaign, former President Donald Trump said "antiquated" campaign finance regulations preclude him from making an official announcement.
"I can't really because of campaign finance rules, regulations," Trump told Tuesday's "The Michael Savage Show." "It's very complicated, very stiff, and frankly very antiquated, if you want to know the truth.
"It's ridiculous. It's actually ridiculous."
Among the campaign finance laws likely holding Trump's official declaration back include those restricting how funds from his Save America PAC can be used to bolster 2022 midterm candidates.
"The only restriction on money in a leadership PAC — it can't be used to campaign for an office," campaign finance attorney Brett Kappel told Mother Jones. "You could use it to buy a suit, or pay your legal bills. He could put his kids on the payroll of the leadership PAC. He could put anyone on the payroll of the leadership PAC as long as they're doing work for the PAC.
"It would make no sense to become a candidate now," Kappel added. "It would make much more sense to tease the possibility of becoming a candidate."
Trump noted to host Michael Savage in an exclusive podcast interview he is maintaining momentum despite being hamstrung by the establishment rules precluding him from making an official declaration.
"But I will be talking about it, and I think a lot of people are going to be very happy," Trump said, pointing his popularity among GOP voters and at the recent straw polls at Texas' Conservative Political Action Conference this month.
"We're doing great in the polls," Trump told Savage. "You saw CPAC recently: 98% approval in the Republican Party.
"Nobody's ever had a rating like that."
Trump also noted Democrats are pulling out all the stops to tarnish him, investigate him, and spin narratives against him and his supporters since he first announced his presidential ambitions in 2015.
"They're vicious," Trump said. "They've come at me with investigations now for five years, from the day I came down the escalator."
"And you win, you win, you win, and they send them into New York, radical left prosecutors – they go after you. It's just terrible.
"Nobody's ever had a thing like this, I'll tell you that."
Trump is holding rallies for 2022 midterm primaries and congressional races to try to help Republicans to regain majorities they lost to Democrats in the "rigged" 2020 election.
"You want America to survive, because there's a very thin line right now between survival or not," Trump concluded.
"Very sad time, but we're going to get it back. We'll get it back."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.