Trump Has Message for Republicans Who Refuse to Endorse Him

Former President Donald Trump this week responded to Republicans who are refusing to endorse him for president after his former vice president said he wouldn’t vote for him in 2024.

While speaking to reporters in Florida on Tuesday, the former president was asked about a recent interview in which former Vice President Mike Pence said he would not endorse him for president.

“I couldn’t care less,” President Trump told the media, responding to a question about the former vice president. “I couldn’t care less. We need patriots. We need strong people in our country. Our country is going downhill very fast, very rapidly.”

Elaborating, he added: “Millions of people coming across the border, coming from jails, from prisons, coming from mental institutions and insane asylum terrorists. We need strong people in this country. We don’t need weak people.”

After essentially clinching the Republican Party nomination for president after former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley dropped out of the race, President Trump has called on Republicans to unite to defeat Democrats at the polls in November.

Last week, Mr. Pence told Fox News that he “cannot in good conscience” endorse his former boss for president in 2024, claiming that President Trump is “pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years.” It’s not clear who Mr. Pence would endorse, but he stressed he would “never vote” for President Joe Biden or a third-party candidate.

In late 2023, Mr. Pence suspended his GOP presidential campaign after failing to gain traction and added in last week’s Fox interview that “during my presidential campaign, I made it clear there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues.”

“And not just our difference on my constitutional duties that I exercised January 6th,” he said.

A number of former Republican presidential rivals have decided to endorse President Trump after competing with him on the campaign trial. They include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), radio host Larry Elder, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Notably, Ms. Haley has not revealed who she will endorse for president after dropping out earlier in March following a dismal performance during the critical Super Tuesday contests. President Trump won all states except for Vermont, which has an open primary system.

President Trump’s comments this week echoed those of Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, a Republican who won his primary contest, who called on Republicans to back the former president’s 2024 bid.

“I am so sick of Republicans that will say, ‘I support President Trump’s policies, but I don’t like the man,’” Mr. Moreno told a crowd over the past weekend. “This is a good man. This is a great American.”

He continued to say that he believes President Trump “wakes up every day fighting for us, fighting for this country. He loves this country like no other leader in this nation has ever loved this country.”

Fundraising Numbers

It comes as President Trump’s campaign and his Save America political action committee, two key committees in his political operation, reported raising a combined $15.9 million in February and ended the month with more than $37 million on hand, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Wednesday night. That’s figure is higher than January’s numbers, when the committees raised only $13.8 million.

“Americans know that they were better off with President Trump four years ago than with Crooked Joe Biden and his disastrous policies. We need a return to America First policies that successfully kept our country safe and supercharged the economy for all Americans,” Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement Thursday.

The Biden campaign, meanwhile, said their political operation raised $53 million last month and ended February with $155 million on hand. That includes President Biden’s joint fundraising with the Democratic National Committee. The full picture will not be available until April, when some of the committees in his political operation are due to file reports.

President Biden’s main campaign account raised $21 million in February, according to its latest filing with the FEC, and ended the month with $71 million on hand.

Meanwhile, President Trump’s February numbers did not include any fundraising with the Republican National Committee (RNC). Earlier this month, President Trump’s political team took over the cash-strapped RNC and installed a new leadership team, including his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump.

The campaign this week set up joint fundraising operations with the RNC, it also was announced.

The Associated Press contributed to this report