Chances of Trump running in 2020 election ‘diminishing every day’, says former White House adviser

The likelihood of Donald Trump running for re-election in 2020 is “diminishing every day”, according to a former White House economic adviser.

Pippa Malmgren suggested the president “doesn’t care” about losing support over the federal shutdown because he does not plan on standing for another four years in the Oval Office.

“I think the chances are rising that he’s not going to be president for the second term,” said Ms Malmgren, who was George W Bush’s special assistant for economic policy.

Voters that had previously been loyal to Mr Trump have been turning on him amid the protracted deadlock over the US-Mexico border wall.

Several polls have indicated his popularity among white Americans without university degrees has plummeted since the start of the shutdown, which entered a record 29th day on Saturday.

“Suddenly the people who had a philosophical alignment, he’s losing them,” said Ms Malmgren in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today.

“The chances of him running again for the presidency are diminishing every day,” she added. “I think that he doesn’t care if his own backers are no longer supporting this.”

Nearly six in 10 registered voters in US say they will not vote for Mr Trump in 2020, according to poll results published this week.

And recent polls have also seen his support fall among a key demographic, white men without college degrees.

Ms Malmgren, who accurately predicted Mr Trump’s election and the outcome of the Brexit referendum, claimed the Republican had never expected to win the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Trump only entered the race three years ago to drum up support for a news network he was planning to launch, she suggested.

“I think that actually the reason he ran initially was create what they’re calling TNN, which is the Trump news version of CNN,” said Ms Malmgren, who added some of the Republican’s campaign staff had been “totally surprised” when he won.

It was reported in 2016 that Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, had approached a media investor about setting up a Trump TV network following the election.

Mr Trump was said to be hoping to capitalise on the anti-media sentiment he stoked during his campaign by launching a new channel, although he denied those rumours.

In November last year, the president floated the idea of launching his own news network to compete with CNN, the broadcaster he frequently attacks.

“Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair and false way,” he claimed in Twitter. “Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT!”