'He hates being called a loser': Donald Trump won't run for president again says ex-security adviser
Donald Trump will not run for the US presidency at the next round of elections because he is scared he won't win, his former national security adviser has predicted.
John Bolton, who worked under the former president, said he does not believe Mr Trump will put himself forward as a presidential candidate because he fears being called a "loser".
His comments come following months of teasing from Mr Trump and his team of another presidential bid in 2024, with him saying earlier this week that he was "certainly thinking about" it.
Mr Bolton told ITV's Peston programme: "I think he knows deep inside, although he'll never admit it, he did lose in 2020 and he very much fears losing in 2024 because if he hates anything in the world, he hates being called a loser.
"And the last thing he wants is to go into history as having lost these last elections.
"Now, I think he will talk about running incessantly until the very last moment because if he were ever to say he was not going to be a candidate, it would turn the spotlight off, and he doesn't like that either."
John Bolton: Trump will keep bluffing that he is running for president again to stay in the "spotlight"
Mr Bolton also believes Mr Trump could even go as far as to attempt to be a "kingmaker in the Republican nomination process".
"But I will make a firm prediction for you - he will not run in 2024," he added.
Mr Bolton also believes Mr Trump's successor President Joe Biden will also not run again and the "Democratic field will be wide open".
The former national security adviser said he did not vote for Mr Trump or Mr Biden in the 2020 elections and "wrote in the name of a real Conservative Republican".
His comments come after the former president told Fox News he would wait until after the midterms to announce whether he will run again, leaving other potential Republican candidates in limbo.
He added: "I think a lot of people will be very happy, frankly, with the decision".
Despite not launching an official campaign, Mr Trump has run a number of rallies this year under the "Save America" slogan.
Last month he launched a new social media platform, TRUTH Social, nine months after he was expelled from Twitter and Facebook for his role in inciting a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol. Mr Trump says his goal in launching the Trump Media & Technology Group and its social media app is to create a rival to the Big Tech companies that have shut him out and denied him the megaphone that was paramount to his national rise.
Watch the Peston show on Wednesday at 10.45pm on ITV and before on Twitter