Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Sunday teased a possible 2024 presidential run while declining to support Donald Trump’s campaign, becoming the latest onetime Trump appointee to distance himself from the former president’s third presidential bid.
Perry, who unsuccessfully sought the 2012 and 2016 GOP presidential nominations, told CNN’s Jim Acosta in an interview that he hasn’t “written off” the idea of running for president in 2024, saying there was “a lot of time” before a decision would need to be made.
When asked if he believes Trump should be the Republican nominee next year, the former Texas governor said, “I’m still trying to sort that out for myself.”
“He may get to hear me call him names again,” Perry added, alluding to previous clashes between the two men in the 2016 Republican primaries. “If you’ll recall, I didn’t announce for president in 2011 until August, so we’ve got a lot of time left.”
When asked explicitly if he was considering another run for president, Perry did not give a direct answer.
“It’s early in the process, I think, for any of us to sit back and say, ‘I’m for this person or that person,’” Perry said. “It certainly is something that I haven’t taken off the table, but the chances of it happening are probably a little bit slim.”
“There’s a lot of time left, and we’ll see how this all works out,” he added.
Perry is the longest-serving Texas governor in history, assuming the role in 2000, when Gov. George W. Bush resigned to become president. He won three full terms before opting against reelection in 2014.
Trump picked Perry as his energy secretary in 2017, a position he held until he resigned in 2019 amid scrutiny over his role in the administration’s dealings with Ukraine – which stemmed from a whistleblower’s…
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