Former President Donald Trump said he would be open to appointing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to his next administration if the independent presidential candidate drops out of the race.

Kennedy Jr.’s running mate Nicole Shanahan said in an interview published on Tuesday that their campaign was deciding whether to stay in through the November election or drop out and align themselves with Trump.

“He’s a brilliant guy. He’s a very smart guy. I’ve known him for a very long time,” Trump told CNN as he campaigned in Michigan on Tuesday. “I didn’t know he was thinking about getting out, but if he is thinking about getting out, certainly I’d be open to it.”

Trump told CNN “I probably would” appoint Kennedy to a role in his next administration if he drops out and backs the former president.

“I would be honored by that endorsement, certainly,” Trump said.

In an episode of the Impact Theory podcast posted Tuesday, Shanahan said if Kennedy presses on and receives 5% of the popular vote, “we actually establish ourselves as a party” and become eligible for future public campaign funds. But, she added, “We run the risk of a Kamala Harris and [Minnesota Gov. Tim] Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump.” 

“Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump and … we explain to our base why we're making this decision,” she said, adding it is not an easy decision.

Asked Tuesday to comment on whether Kennedy shares Shanahan’s opinion, the campaign directed Spectrum News to a post on X, formerly Twitter, by Kennedy that said, “As always, I am willing to talk with leaders of any political party to further the goals I have served for 40 years in my career and in this campaign.”

ABC News reported that Jeff Hays, who has raised money for the Kennedy-Shanahan campaign, told the network Shanahan’s comments “just absolutely killed fundraising” and that he’s canceling an event that was scheduled for next month in Utah.

At the end of July, the Kennedy campaign had $3.9 million cash on hand but owed nearly $3.5 million, according to a campaign finance report filed Monday.

Recent polls show Kennedy with anywhere from 2% to 9% support nationally.

It’s not clear a Kennedy exit would benefit Trump and hurt Harris. For example, an ABC News-Washington Post poll released Sunday found Harris leading Trump nationally by 3 percentage points when third-party and independent candidates were listed as options, but the vice president led Trump by 4 points head-to-head.

Last month, video of a phone call between Trump and Kennedy leaked. In the call, it appeared Trump tried to encourage Kennedy to drop out of the election and endorse him.

“I would love you to do stuff, and I think it'll be so good for you, so big for you,” Trump said.

The Washington Post, citing Kennedy campaign officials, reported last week that Kennedy sought a meeting with Harris to discuss the possibility of serving in her administration if he endorsed her.

In the podcast interview, Shanahan denied the report.

“Definitely never have brought up this idea of an endorsement with Harris,” she said. “Definitely have never brought up a Cabinet position with Harris.”

Shanahan, however, said the campaign has “offered to talk to everybody about what your policies are, who’s going to be in your Cabinet, do you want to hear any of our takes on policy and what might work?”

Lis Smith, communications adviser for the Democratic National Committee, said Shanahan “isn’t even pretending to be a serious VP candidate anymore.”

“From the beginning of this race, we’ve said that RFK Jr. is nothing more than a spoiler for Donald Trump, and we’re glad that his running mate is finally admitting it,” Smith said.

Shanahan, an attorney and venture capitalist, said she did not put up “tens of millions of dollars” of her own money “to be a spoiler candidate” and blamed a “DNC-aligned PAC that was create specifically to take us out” for turning the independent ticket into a potential spoiler.

Shanahan also did not rule out running for California governor.

“I think that I'd be happy to support somebody great to run for California governor so that we can nip this dynastic lineage in the butt,” she said. “I would consider running as well. I want to be involved in California.”