Former GOP congressman Bill Paxon offered that prediction Friday during an Argus Foundation meeting in Sarasota

There will be a Trump running for president in 2024.

Former GOP congressman Bill Paxon offered that prediction Friday during an Argus Foundation meeting in Sarasota.

Paxon predicted that President Donald Trump will run again in 2024 if he loses in 2020. If Trump wins reelection, one of his kids will look to succeed him in 2024, Paxon ventured.

"I don’t think we’ve seen the end of the Trump legacy at all," he said.

Paxon and his wife, Susan Molinari — also a former GOP member of Congress from New York — offered their insights on politics and the economy during a lunch event at Michael’s on East.

As the former chair of the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, Paxon has a lot of experience working to help Republicans get elected. He predicted that Trump will win a second term and that Republicans will hold the Senate, but that Democrats will hold onto the House, preserving the status quo.

"The fact is the House is hard to win," he said.

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Molinari views former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — a Democrat and one of the richest men in the world — as a disruptive force in the presidential race. Bloomberg is spending big money, including in Florida, to get his name out and go after Trump.

"That to me is the only wild card that I see with regard to the presidency," said Molinari, who described Bloomberg as a "terrific mayor" who would be a good president. "Can Mike Bloomberg win — A — or can he weaken Trump enough that if Joe Biden, say, were the candidate that he can sneak through?"

Even if Bloomberg doesn’t win the nomination, Paxon predicted that his spending will help Democrats in Florida by helping to build out their infrastructure, something the Florida Democratic Party regularly struggles with.

"He is going to build that organization … this will have an impact on the election in Florida this fall regardless of whether he’s the candidate or not," Paxon said.

Paxon worked as a lobbyist after leaving Congress and Molinari worked as a journalist and as an executive with Google. They are now residents of Siesta Key, where Paxon is president of his homeowner’s association.

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Having supported former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and then Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, Paxon acknowledged he was not an early Trump backer. He marveled at how the president has consolidated the GOP behind him, calling Trump’s Republican support "impregnable."

"The president has used Twitter to build and hold that base like I’ve never seen before," Paxon said.

Trump will soon face an impeachment trial in the Senate, but Paxon and Molinari predicted it will not hurt his popularity and soon will be forgotten.

Heading into the heart of campaign season, "I think he controls a significant number of the media reports, and impeachment will be long forgotten," Molinari said.

"Voters are baked in on this issue," Paxon said of impeachment.