President Donald Trump said he wasn’t surprised to hear that Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas might be interested in a 2028 bid for the White House.

“It's a little early. It's three and a quarter years (away). That's a long time,” said Trump, responding to a question from a reporter in the Oval Office about an Axios report saying Cruz was laying the groundwork for a run. “But he's a very good guy. He is a very good friend of mine.”

“I'm not that surprised hear that,” he added. Cruz was one of 16 Republicans who Trump ran against in the 2016 GOP primary before he claimed the nomination, and later the White House.

Axios reported that Cruz was "leaning into his feud with Tucker Carlson — and staking out turf as a traditional, pro-interventionist Republican" in global conflicts. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, who is widely seen as the 2028 GOP frontrunner, is an ally of Carlson and has backed Trump's "America First" policy on foreign affairs and US involvement.

Trump is constitutionally prohibited from seeking a third presidential term, though he has repeatedly expressed interest in serving beyond 2028 while acknowledging that he legally cannot.

“I’m not allowed to run," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Oct. 29. "It’s too bad."

Earlier in the day, Cruz was coy when asked by Fox News’ Harris Faulkner, host of the “The Faulkner Focus,” to comment on the Axios story.

"Reporters are going to write headlines that get clicks and get eyeballs. I got a job — it’s representing 31 million Texans. And I’ll tell you right now, the wins we are getting are historic," Cruz said, without denying the reporting.

Cruz then highlighted his own contribution to the Trump's signature, sweeping tax and spending bill that Congress passed in July.

The ‘one big, beautiful bill’ you were talking about just a minute ago, I was blessed to write major portions of that bill,” he said.

The legal limits on Trump’s run haven't stopped some of his allies from pushing the idea of a third term.

Steve Bannon, who served as White House chief strategist during Trump’s first administration and now hosts an influential MAGA podcast, told The Economist on Oct. 23 that "Trump is going to be president in '28, and people just ought to get accommodated with that."

Contributing: Zac Anderson; Zach Schermele

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Trump reacts to possible Ted Cruz White House bid

Reporting by Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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