Trump won’t commit to supporting 2024 Republican presidential nominee if it’s not him

Former President Donald Trump Thursday refused to commit to supporting the 2024 Republican presidential nominee — if he doesn’t win it.

“It would depend. I would give you the same answer I gave in 2016,” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “It would have to depend on who the nominee was.”

The GOP needs a unified base of support to have a fighting chance to unseat President Biden, who is expected to announce his own reelection bid soon.

The worst case scenario for Republicans would be a losing Trump launching a third party or independent bid, which would siphon votes away from the nominee and help Democrats.

Trump also unloaded on Florida Gov. DeSantis, who has emerged as his most potent potential presidential rival, claiming that DeSantis “begged me” for an endorsement in his hard-fought 2018 Republican primary.

“[DeSantis] begged me, begged me, for an endorsement,” Trump told Hewitt. “He was getting ready to drop out.”

“There were tears coming down from his eyes,” Trump added. “He said, ‘If you endorse me, I’ll win.’ So I end up doing it, and he wins.”

Trump is the only announced candidate for the Republican nomination so far. But others are chomping at the bit to jump into the race including Trump’s ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who’s planning a Feb. 15 special announcement.

After a slow campaign start, Trump has unleashed a string of nasty attacks on DeSantis.

Trump has slammed DeSantis for not being a staunch enough opponent of COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

He brands him a Republican in Name Only and a “globalist” a negative buzz word on the far right.

DeSantis has mostly kept his powder dry and has never criticized Trump by name. But he does regularly remind Republicans that he won a massive landslide reelection victory in the 2022 midterms at the same time as Trump’s handpicked far right-wing candidates mostly fell to Democrats.

In 2016, Trump refused to agree to back the GOP nominee in bitter Republican primary debates as he first ran for the White House.

After winning the Republican nod, he scooped the support of almost all his opponents, including onetime fierce rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and went on to score an electoral college win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.