Trump says RFK Jr. will hurt Biden. In private, he’s not so sure.

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he’s confident that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will pull more votes away from President Joe Biden than from him — a net win for the Republican’s candidacy.

“He is Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, not mine,” Trump wrote on Truth Social late last month. “I love that he is running!”

Behind closed doors, however, Trump is less sure. A Republican who was in the room with Trump earlier this year as the former president reviewed polling said Trump was unsure of how Kennedy would impact the race, asking the other people on hand whether or not Kennedy was actually good for his candidacy.

And after mostly ignoring Kennedy early in his campaign, Trump has stepped up his efforts to brand the independent candidate as left-wing and make him Biden’s problem, suggesting that he and allies are concerned about Kennedy’s ability to attract Republican voters. In the same post in which he called Kennedy Biden’s political opponent, Trump called Kennedy “the most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far,” someone who was “a big fan of the Green New Scam” and “other economy killing disasters.”

In a video monologue he posted to his social media page this month, Trump described Kennedy as being to Biden’s left but said Kennedy has “got some nice things about him” and “I happen to like him.”

“If I were a Democrat, I’d vote for RFK Jr. every single time over Biden because he’s frankly more in line with Democrats,” Trump said, adding, “I do believe that RFK Jr. will do very well. And I do believe he’s going to take a lot of votes away from crooked Joe Biden.”

Trump’s increased focus on Kennedy comes as Democrats have increased their attention on third-party