Former US President, Donald Trump has said he doesn’t expect current President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 contest due to his “ego”.

During a prime-time appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Monday night, July 8, Trump, 78, said;

“I think he might very well stay in, and if he doesn’t – nobody wants to give up that way – he’s going to feel badly about himself for a long time,”

“He’s got an ego and doesn’t want to quit. I think Jill would like to see him stay, she’s having a good time. I’m hearing Hunter is calling the shots,” he mused.

“It’s hard to give it up that way the way they’re trying to force him out,” the former president said, alluding to the growing chorus of Democratic allies calling for Biden, 81, to step aside.

In the wide-ranging 18-minute phone interview, Trump’s first since his debate with Biden last month, host Sean Hannity asked the 2024 GOP nominee about his rival’s performance in the June 27 debate.

“Within minutes I could tell this was not going to be a good night for Joe Biden,” Trump said, highlighting his “extremely pale” appearance on the Atlanta stage.

“He was a very pale man, to put it nicely. I don’t know, maybe it was a good makeup job, maybe it wasn’t a good makeup job.”

“When he started to speak I thought his voice was weak, I didn’t know exactly what was happening. It was strange,” he said, describing Biden as going “a little haywire.”

As for the content of his opponent’s messaging, Trump said, “They weren’t even answers, they were just words put together that made no meaning or sense.”

Hannity questioned Trump on Vice President Kamala Harris, whose name has been floated in recent days as the presumptive heir apparent should Biden surrender his candidacy.

“Well I think that it will be her,” Trump said of the unlikely event Biden steps down and is replaced at the top of the ticket.

He called the Democrats “gun shy” about the prospect of going with anybody other than Harris in his stead.

Biden has rejected calls for him to step down from fellow Democrats, insisting that he is the most qualified to win the election. At a Wisconsin rally, he declared that he is “running and going to win again.”

“They don’t want to do it any other way.” he said.

As for his reaction to the media’s about-face on denying Biden’s declining faculties, Trump said “It’s getting difficult to cover for him.”

When Hannity point-blank asked if he wanted Biden to step aside, Trump said simply, “We’ve prepared for him, but I don’t think it’s going to matter.”