Will Trump Persuade Hillary Clinton to Run Again?

Jacob Heilbrunn

Politics, Americas

Donald Trump wants to run against Hillary Clinton one more time in 2020.

It’s becoming increasingly clear why Donald Trump did not seek to prosecute Hillary Clinton after the 2016 election. He never wanted to lock her up. Instead, he wants to run against her one more time in 2020. In what amounted to a plea for another chance, Trump made his ardor for Clinton and displeasure with Elizabeth Warren clear today.

In a tweet, he announced, “I think that Crooked Hillary Clinton should enter the race to try and steal it away from Uber Left Elizabeth Warren. Only one condition. The Crooked one must explain all of her high crimes and misdemeanors including how & why she deleted 33,000 Emails AFTER getting ‘C’ Subpoena.” A few hours later, Clinton responded, “Don’t tempt me. Do your job.”

How great is the temptation? Clinton has never really come to terms with her defeat. The opportunity to become the first female president must be tantalizing, especially when Clinton sees that Warren, a political neophyte next to Clinton, might become the Democratic nominee. Then there is the lure of finally exorcising Trump, the man who, against all the odds, was elected president, putting the kibosh not only on her big planned fireworks display on election night at the Hudson River, but also on her political aspirations. Now at least one poll released on Monday suggests that she and Trump would be in a deadlock with each garnering 45 percent of the vote. 

When it comes to Trump and Clinton, a psychologist might conclude that the two are locked in a codependent relationship. Neither can really exist, at least in the political realm, without the other. As he faces impeachment, Trump knows that no one could serve as a better foil for him than Clinton. It’s Hillary, he keeps suggesting, who is the nefarious one, not him. Standing near her provides him with a kind of blanket absolution for any misdeeds he may have perpetrated.