Trump speaks to possible 2024 campaign, criticism

(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump hasn’t confirmed whether he’ll campaign again for presidency, but says crime and immigration would be among his top priorities if he were to be elected to a second term.

During an interview with NewsNation on Tuesday, Trump reiterated the false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and teased a Nov. 15 announcement that he said will make people “very happy” and “very impressed.”

Already, people are “begging” the former president for jobs if he were to run again, he said, noting that a second Trump presidency would resemble his first.

“I would do very similar things and I would do them rather quickly,” Trump said. “You have you close up our border You have to get rid of crime. I would be a big crime fighter. We were and we were very successful and I’d do it even more so.”

The former president went on to criticize the state of the country, saying that “success” would help overcome current political divisiveness.

“Success will bring us together,” Trump said. “Our country right now has lost it’s confidence. It’s lost it’s mojo. It’s lost everything. Our country right now is a big fat failure. We’re being laughed at all over the world.”

The border and crime have been major talking points for Republican candidates this election cycle, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Trump and DeSantis have recently butted heads and on Tuesday, Trump said the Florida governor “could have been more gracious” about the former president’s support during DeSantis’ first gubernatorial bid.

NewsNation reached out to DeSantis and his team for a response but had not received a response as of 6:30 p.m. CT.

Trump also took shots at former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, who pushed back against Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread election fraud.

In June, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol played portions of an interview with Barr, who said he told former President Trump he did not agree with saying the election was stolen.

“(Barr) didn’t have courage,” Trump told NewsNation. “He didn’t have courage to do what you had to do.”

Trump’s actions the day of and leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection are just one aspect of the scrutiny the former president has faced after leaving the White House.

The August release of the search warrant used by federal authorities to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate confirmed Trump was in possession of top secret documents.

A trial also began late last month in connection to criminal tax fraud allegations against the Trump Organization.

On Tuesday, Trump told NewsNation none of that was a distraction to the Republican party, and discredited the legitimacy of such investigations.

“From the first day, this administration was under investigation and they were fake investigations,” Trump said.