Trump to run for president in 2024

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’ll mount a 3rd White House campaign, launching an early begin to the 2024 contest. The announcement comes just per week after an underwhelming midterm showing for Republicans and can force the party to come to a decision whether to embrace a candidate whose refusal to simply accept defeat in 2020 pushed American democracy to the brink.

“As a way to make America great and glorious again, I’m tonight announcing my candidacy for president of america,” Trump said to an audience of several hundred supporters, club members and gathered press in a chandeliered ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago club, where he stood flanked by greater than 30 American flags and banners bearing his “Make America Great Again” slogan.

“I’m running because I think the world has not yet seen the true glory of what this nation will be,” Trump said.

“We are going to again put America first,” he added.

Trump enters the race in a moment of political vulnerability. He hoped to launch his campaign within the wake of resounding GOP midterm victories, fueled by candidates he elevated during this 12 months’s primaries. As a substitute, a lot of those candidates lost, allowing Democrats to maintain the Senate and leaving the GOP with a path to only a bare majority within the House.

Removed from the undisputed leader of the party, Trump is now facing criticism from a few of his own allies, who say it’s time for Republicans to look to the longer term, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emerging as an early favorite White House contender.

The previous president continues to be popular with the GOP base. But other Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence, are taking increasingly public steps toward campaigns of their very own, raising the prospect that Trump may have to navigate a competitive GOP primary.

He’s launching his candidacy amid a series of escalating criminal investigations, including several that may lead to indictments. They include the probe into dozens of documents with classified markings that were seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago and ongoing state and federal inquiries into his efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.

One other campaign is a remarkable turn for any former president, much less one who made history as the primary to be impeached twice and whose term ended together with his supporters violently storming the Capitol in a deadly bid to halt the peaceful transition of power on Jan. 6, 2021.

But Trump, in line with people near him, has been wanting to return to politics and take a look at to halt the rise of other potential challengers. Aides have spent the last months readying paperwork, identifying potential staff and sketching out the contours of a campaign that’s being modeled on his 2016 operation, when a small clutch of aides zipping between rallies on his private jet defied the chances and defeated far better-funded and more experienced rivals by tapping into deep political fault lines and using shocking statements to drive relentless media attention.

Even after GOP losses, Trump stays essentially the most powerful force in his party. For years he has consistently topped his fellow Republican contenders by wide margins in hypothetical head-to-head matchups. And even out of office, he consistently attracts hundreds to his rallies and stays his party’s most prolific fundraiser, raising lots of of thousands and thousands of dollars.

But Trump can be a deeply polarizing figure. Fifty-four percent of voters in last week’s midterm elections viewed him very or somewhat unfavorably, in line with AP VoteCast, a survey of greater than 94,000 voters nationwide. And an October AP-NORC poll found even Republicans have their reservations about him remaining the party’s standard-bearer, with 43% saying they don’t wish to see him run for president in 2024.

Trump’s candidacy poses profound questions on America’s democratic future. The ultimate days of his presidency were consumed by a desperate effort to remain in power, undermining the centuries-old tradition of a peaceful transfer. And within the two years since he lost, Trump’s persistent — and baseless — lies about widespread election fraud have eroded confidence within the nation’s political process. By late January 2021, about two-thirds of Republicans said they didn’t consider President Joe Biden was legitimately elected in 2020, an AP-NORC poll found.

VoteCast showed roughly as many Republican voters within the midterm elections continued to carry that belief.

Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there isn’t any credible evidence the 2020 election was tainted. The previous president’s allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by quite a few courts, including by judges Trump appointed.

But that didn’t stop lots of of midterm candidates from parroting his lies as they sought to win over his loyal base and rating his coveted endorsement. Ultimately, a lot of those candidates went on to lose their races in an indication that voters rejected such extreme rhetoric.

While some Republicans with presidential ambitions, like former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, have long ruled out running against Trump, others have said he wouldn’t figure into their decisions, even before his midterm losses.

They include Pence, who released a book Tuesday, and Trump’s former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, in addition to former Recent Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who ran against Trump in 2016. Other potential candidates include Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Trump can be prone to face challenges from members of the anti-Trump wing of the party like Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the House committee that has been investigating Jan. 6.

But the one who has most occupied Trump and his allies in recent months is DeSantis, whose commanding reelection as governor last week was a brilliant spot for Republicans this cycle. The previous congressman, who became a well-liked national figure amongst conservatives through the pandemic as he pushed back on COVID-19 restrictions, shares Trump’s pugilistic instincts and has embraced fights over social issues with similar zeal.

Even some enthusiastic Trump supporters say they’re longing for DeSantis to run, seeing him as a natural successor to Trump but without the previous president’s considerable baggage.

Trump has already begun to lash out at DeSantis publicly. On Tuesday, the Florida governor shot back.

“At the top of the day, I might just tell people to go try the scoreboard from last Tuesday night,” DeSantis told reporters.

A crowded field of GOP rivals could ultimately play to Trump’s advantage, because it did in 2016, when he prevailed over greater than a dozen other candidates who splintered the anti-Trump vote.

Trump’s decision paves the way in which for a possible rematch with Biden, who has said he intends to run for reelection despite concerns from some in his party over his age and low approval rankings. The 2 men were already the oldest presidential nominees ever once they ran in 2020. Trump, who’s 76, could be 82 at the top of a second term in 2029. Biden, who’s about to show 80, could be 86.

If he’s ultimately successful, Trump could be just the second U.S. president in history to serve two nonconsecutive terms, following Grover Cleveland’s wins in 1884 and 1892.

But Trump enters the race facing enormous challenges beyond his party’s growing trepidations. The previous president is the topic of various investigations, including the monthslong probe into the lots of of documents with classified markings present in boxes at Mar-a-Lago.

Meanwhile, Trump is facing Justice Department scrutiny over efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election. In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating what she alleges was “a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign” to influence the 2020 results.

And in Recent York, Attorney General Letitia James has sued Trump, alleging his namesake company engaged in a long time’ price of fraudulent bookkeeping by misleading banks concerning the value of his assets. The Trump Organization can be now on trial, facing criminal tax fraud charges.

Some in Trump’s orbit consider that running will help shield him against potential indictment, but there isn’t any legal statute that may prevent the Justice Department from moving forward — or prevent Trump from continuing to run if he’s charged.

It wasn’t any secret what he had been planning.

At a White House Christmas party in December 2020, Trump told guests it had “been an incredible 4 years.”

“We are attempting to do one other 4 years,” he said. “Otherwise, I’ll see you in 4 years.”