Trump Says He Would Be Honored by RFK Jr. Endorsement

(Left) Former President Donald Trump holds a rally in the South Bronx in New York City, on May 23, 2024. (Right) Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at a rally at Brazos Hall in Austin, Texas, on May 13, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times; Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump said on Thursday morning that he would be honored by an endorsement from independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after the Kennedy campaign announced that its candidate intends to address the nation on Friday.

“I’ve known him for a long time. He’s, as you know, he’s a little different kind of a guy. Very smart guy. Very good person,” Trump said of Kennedy in an interview with “Fox and Friends.”

“If he endorsed me. I would be honored by it. I would be very honored by it,” the former president said. “He really has his heart in the right place. He is a respected person. Women love some of his policies, and I guess some people don’t like some of his policies.”

Earlier this week, Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan signaled in a podcast interview that the campaign would either form its own party or join forces with Trump and back the former president.

On Wednesday, the campaign said Kennedy will make an announcement about the future of his campaign on Friday in Arizona. Trump will also be making an appearance in the state for a speech, although it’s not clear if the two candidates will make an appearance together.

Earlier this week, Trump said he would be open to appointing Kennedy to a position in his administration.

“I probably would, if something like that would happen. He’s a very different kind of a guy, a very smart guy. And, yeah, I would be honored by that endorsement, certainly,” he told CNN.

Initially in his campaign Kennedy, 70, attempted to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, then decided to run as an independent.

He also has dropped to the low single digits in opinion polls after President Joe Biden announced in July that he was dropping out of the race before endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee who is slated to speak at the party’s convention Thursday.

The latest poll conducted and published by The Economist and YouGov on Aug. 21 shows Kennedy winning only 3 percent of likely voters’ support. By comparison, Harris and Trump have 46 percent and 43 percent support, respectively.

In her interview this week, Shanahan said the challenges the campaign is facing, including what she described as being shadow-banned from social media platforms, being kept off stages, and facing legal actions, greatly diminish the chances that a third-party candidate such as Kennedy will win.

“I really wanted a fair shot at this election, and I believed in the America I as a little girl pledged allegiance to, and that is not where we are today,” she said, adding that the “tens of millions” in dollars of her own money donated to the campaign wasn’t meant to make Kennedy a “spoiler.”

“We wanted to win. We wanted a fair shot,” she said.

Before the announcement, Shanahan said there were two options on the table.

“One is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Waltz presidency because we draw votes from Trump. We draw somehow more votes from Trump,” she said. “Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump and we walk away from that and we explain to our base why we are making this decision. Not an easy decision.”

A day after the podcast interview was posted online, a Kennedy spokesperson wrote on social media platform X that the candidate “will address the nation live on Friday about the present historical moment and his path forward.” The address will take place in Phoenix at 2 p.m. ET. No other details were provided.

Austin Alonzo contributed to this report.