I cannot in good conscience
ask my staff and volunteers to keep working their long hours
or ask my donors to keep giving
when I cannot
honestly tell them that I have a real path to the White House.
I met again with President Trump
and his family members and close advisors
in Florida.
In a series of long, intense discussions,
I was surprised to discover that we are aligned on many key issues.
In those meetings, he suggested that we join forces as a unity party.
I was a ferocious critic
of many of the policies during his first administration,
and there are still issues and approaches
upon which we continue to have very serious differences.
But we are aligned with each other on other key issues,
like ending the forever wars,
ending the childhood disease epidemics,
securing the border,
protecting freedom of speech,
unraveling the corporate capture of our regulatory agencies,
getting the US intelligence agencies out of the business
of propagandizing and censoring
and surveilling Americans
and interfering with our elections.
Following my first discussion with President Trump,
I tried unsuccessfully
to open similar discussions with Vice President Harris.
Vice President Harris declined to meet or even to speak with me.
Suspending my candidacy is a hard,
rending decision for me,
but I’m convinced that it’s the best hope for ending the Ukraine war
and ending the chronic disease epidemic
that is eroding our nation’s vitality from the inside.