Trump made the remarks in an interview with New Hampshire radio host Jack Heath, amid reports that Lewandowski is seriously considering a campaign in his home state to become the Republican challenger to the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Lewandowski is expected to ride in the presidential motorcade Thursday night with Trump from the airport in Manchester, New Hampshire, to a reelection campaign rally that Trump will hold nearby.
For days, questions have swirled about whether Trump will endorse Lewandowski, who has not yet declared his candidacy, at the rally. An announcement from Lewandowski about the Senate race is not yet imminent, according to a person working with him.
Still, Trump appeared eager to elevate Lewandowski. When Heath asked if Lewandowski would have the president’s support if he ran, Trump stopped short of a full endorsement, saying that Lewandowski hadn’t made up his mind about joining the race. But he went on to say, “I have to tell you, I think he’d be fantastic.
“He’s got great energy; he’s terrific on television,” Trump said. “I like everything about him.”
He added, “If he ran, I think he’d be No. 1. I think he’d be hard to beat in New Hampshire.”
Trump fired Lewandowski at the urging of his children in June 2016, but the president has retained a fondness for him and speaks with him often. Before his ouster, Lewandowski helped Trump notch his first primary victory, in New Hampshire, a win that helped vault him to the nomination. Lewandowski would hope to run on the same outsider energy that Trump channeled that year.
Just how formidable Lewandowski would be is a source of disagreement among political professionals, most of whom predict an ugly Republican primary race and general election in New Hampshire.
His opponents would be almost certain to raise questions about his business activities since Trump went into office. Lewandowski wrote two books about Trump with David Bossie, head of conservative group Citizens United.
But he has also been an adviser to companies that have interests with the government, and he would be required to file financial disclosure forms that would reveal the extent of those business arrangements.
Lewandowski has previously said he is not a lobbyist and that he has never called government officials on behalf of a client.
The Republican Senate primary in New Hampshire already has several declared candidates, including retired Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc and Bill O’Brien, the former state House speaker.
After Bossie released a private poll he had commissioned from a pollster working with Trump’s campaign that showed Lewandowski leading in a theoretical Republican primary, aides to Bolduc released their own internal survey showing Bolduc ahead.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.