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While he hasn’t announced he’s running for the White House, Rep. Adam Kinzinger says he’d love to take on Donald Trump, the former president from his own party whom he’s so fiercely criticized. 

The Illinois congressman made the remark in an interview with HuffPost published Monday. 

Kinzinger, 44, has announced he won’t seek a seventh term this year. Asked if he might be eyeing a presidential run in 2024, Kinzinger said: “I’ll make a decision when we get there, if there’s a need and a desire. It’s truly not anything I’m planning right now, but I’m not going to rule it out.”

He then added: “Look, if we’re in a position, if it’s just terrible candidates and the country’s in a worse place? Maybe. But there’s no grand plan right now.”

But, according to HuffPost, Kinzinger’s eyes widened when he was asked about the possibility of facing Trump. 

“I would love it. I really would,” he said. “Even if he crushed me, like in a primary, to be able to stand up and call out the garbage is just a necessary thing, regardless of who it is. … I think it’d be fun.”

Kinzinger was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, putting himself in Trump’s crosshairs as the former president seeks revenge against GOP members who crossed him.

Kinzinger further enraged his party by voting for the creation of a House committee to investigate the violent Jan. 6 Capitol riot and then becoming one of only two Republicans to serve on it, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming being the other. In February, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution to censure Kinzinger and Cheney for their work on the panel, which the party accused of persecuting “ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

Kinzinger has ruled out running for the U.S. Senate or Illinois governor. The Air Force pilot would face a steep uphill climb in a Republican presidential primary. While his votes aligned with Trump’s positions 90% of the time, Kinzinger’s outspoken views about the former president put him at odds with the party’s base. 

Trump’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Spectrum News.

Trump has suggested in rally speeches and media interviews that he’ll run for president again in 2024, but he has not explicitly announced his plans. Aside from Kinzinger, other Republicans who might challenge Trump include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Cheney. 

Last year, Kinzinger formed a political action committee, called “Country 1st,” aimed at changing the direction of the GOP, which he said has lost its way by becoming a Trump-first party. 

The Illinois Republican, however, told HuffPost that today “mentally I feel more like an independent than a Republican.” But he added, “The Republican Party is going to be around for a while, and it deserves to have a battle for who it is.”

In the House, Kinzinger said he’s “exhausted of the same arguments, the same kind of performative politics.”

He added that he feels a “coldness” there. Many of the lawmakers he entered with during the Tea Party wave of 2010 are gone now; he’s tried to avoid extremists such Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C.; and his remaining friendships are strained. 

“It’s like how you stop dating somebody without breaking up with them,” Kinzinger said. “You do a week between dates and then three weeks. It’s like a slow ghosting. It’s the same in Congress. I just sort of ghost having friendships.”