Jason Miller, a former Donald Trump campaign strategist, said in an interview with The London Times that the former president “feels happier” than at the White House and is happy that he is no longer on social media.
After leaving office, Miller’s image of Trump’s mood is contradicted by other reports coming from the post-presidential president’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
A source close to the president told the Daily Beast last week that the former president is so frustrated about being banned from Twitter that he is writing insults and tweets and trying to get aides to send them.
Still, Miller insisted that Trump is the most relaxed person who has ever seen him.
“This was the first time in years that I saw the president really relaxed,” he told the Times. “Only 45 other people in the history of the United States have experienced what it is like to have the world on your shoulders … and be able to breathe out, knowing that not everything depends on you for the first time in four years.”
Miller worked with Trump as a communications consultant during his successful 2016 presidential campaign and took on a role as senior strategist in Trump’s unsuccessful reelection campaign last year.
In the interview, Miller also spoke about Trump’s second impeachment trial to convict the president on charges that he incited an insurrection by inciting supporters to attack the Capitol on January 6.
“There is no real scenario in which he will be sentenced, so the pressure is completely off,” Miller said in the publication of the impeachment trial.
Miller said he believed his former boss “would” like to run for president again in 2024.
He warned Republicans that if they vote to condemn Trump, he could set up plans to start a third party and destroy the Republican Party.
“There was no active planning for a third party and it will continue to do so,” said Miller. “The only way the situation would get worse would be if Republican senators vote to condemn President Trump.
“I don’t think the Republican senators want to destroy the party, so let’s dismiss this second witch hunt impeachment.”
Republican lawmakers are concerned that if they oppose Trump, he could turn his supporters against them and support the main opponents to remove them from office.
Unlike other former presidents, who maintain a relatively low profile after leaving office, Trump spoke to praise allies in the Republican Party while seeking to maintain his control over the party and mitigate the prospects for an impeachment conviction.
Among them is Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, whom Trump has expressed support while under pressure from previous comments that support bizarre right-wing conspiracy theories and violence against Democrats.
He is also determined to take revenge on Republicans who turned against him, including Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the third most powerful Republican in Congress, one of 10 Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment in the January 13 House vote.
Miller said Trump remains the most powerful force in Republican politics.
“It’s not even close. He’s the one who remade the party and brought in new people,” said Miller.
“The Republican Party now shares its ideals when it comes to trade, foreign policy and being an inclusive party that has had record support from African Americans and Latinos.”