Donald Trump, a former president, declares he will run for president in 2024.
Former President Donald Trump declared Tuesday night that he will run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. He hopes to become just the second commander-in-chief to be elected to two non-consecutive terms.
Trump addressed a throng assembled at Mar-a-Lago, his seaside resort in Florida, where his campaign will be based, "I am launching my candidacy for President of the United States tonight in order to make America great and magnificent again."
Trump gave a relatively subdued speech while surrounded by supporters, advisers, and influential conservatives. The speech was full of untrue and exaggerated claims about his four years in office.
He frequently compared his first-term accomplishments with the policies of the Biden administration and the current economic situation in an attempt to arouse nostalgia for his time in office among Republicans who have begun to exhibit signs of Trump fatigue following the midterm elections. Many of those perceived successes, such as the strict immigration policies, corporate tax cuts, and religious freedom initiatives, continue to this day to be extremely divisive.
Trump asserted that the party cannot afford to nominate "a politician or conventional candidate" if it hopes to retake the White House as he addressed a roomful of Republicans who anticipate he will face primary challengers in the upcoming months.
Trump declared, "This will not be my campaign; this will be our campaign as a whole.
Trump's eagerly anticipated campaign comes as he attempts to reclaim the spotlight following the GOP's underwhelming midterm election performance, which included the losses of several Trump-endorsed election deniers, and the subsequent blame game that has developed since Election Day. With only 215 races called in their favor so far out of the 218 needed, Republicans have failed to win a Senate majority, fallen short in their attempts to fill several statewide seats, and have yet to win a majority in the House. These outcomes have put Trump and other party leaders on the defensive as they deal with criticism from within their ranks.
Just before making his announcement at Mar-a-Lago, Trump filed the necessary paperwork with the Federal Election Committee to officially declare his candidacy.
He only spent a small portion of his speech reiterating his lies about the 2020 race, much to the pleasure of advisers and allies who have long counseled him to wage a forward-looking campaign. Trump tried at times to broaden his grievances, lamenting the "massive corruption" and "entrenched interests" that, in his opinion, have consumed Washington. While he criticized the use of paper ballots and compared America's electoral process to that of "third world countries," Trump also decried the use of electronic voting. Trump's closest aides are worried that his obsession with spreading theories about the 2016 election would make it more difficult for him to win a national election in 2024.
Trump made it abundantly apparent throughout the hour-long address that he wants Republicans to view his campaign as a self-sacrificing endeavor.
The legal and emotional toll his presidency and post-presidential period has taken on his family members was described by him at one point. "Anyone who truly seeks to take on this rigged and corrupt system will be faced with a storm of fire that only a few could understand," he said.
Trump has come under fire following last week's midterm elections for boosting unqualified candidates who spent too much time repeating his allegations of election fraud, alienating crucial voters and eventually causing their defeats. On Tuesday, he made an effort to refute that allegation by highlighting at least one Trump-backed candidate, Kevin Kiley of California, and emphasizing that Republicans seem certain to regain control of the House. Trump at one point seemed to attribute his party's midterm defeat to voters not yet understanding "the total effect of the suffering" brought on by the previous two years of Democratic rule in Washington.
He predicted that things would be significantly worse by 2024 and that people would be able to clearly see what had happened to and was happening to our nation. As a result, he predicted that people would vote very differently.
Beating Competitors To The Punch
According to advisers, Trump is hoping that his early-mover advantage would keep away possible primary competitors and give him a head start with wealthy contributors. Conservative and moderate Republicans are supposed to challenge him, but now that he's running, some presidential candidates' plans may change. Others, like Mike Pence, his former vice president, might go on anyhow.
Trump's third run for president also falls during a time of increased legal risk as Justice Department investigators of him and his associates reevaluate the possibility of indictments in their Trump-related investigations. The former president is currently under investigation for his actions leading up to and during the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as well as for keeping secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office.
Trump anticipates a smooth path to the GOP nomination thanks to the party's base's continued support, but his declaration is sure to dampen the aspirations of party officials who have been pining for new blood. Top Republicans in particular have been closely watching the next movements of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who won his reelection race with a 19-point margin of victory and a sizable amount of support from independent and minority voters. DeSantis, who has been discreetly building the framework for a potential White House run of his own, is one of the alternative candidates who some Republican leaders may try to support or elevate in an effort to derail Trump's candidacy.
Of course, any attempt to block Trump from receiving the nomination is going to be challenging. The twice-impeached 45th president maintains a high level of support from the majority of Republican voters despite his numerous legal issues and the stain of January 6. He also has a strong bond with his core supporters that other GOP candidates may find challenging to match or undermine.One of the most far-reaching aspects of Trump's legacy is that he helped solidify the rightward shift of the US Supreme Court with his nominations, which led to the conservative court majority's deeply divisive June decision to end federal abortion rights. Even leading conservatives who disapproved of Trump's combative politics and heterodox policies supported him as president. Trump actually had the lowest approval rating of any president at the end of his first term, but Republicans still liked him, an NBC News survey from May found. That alone may give Trump a considerable advantage over rivals in the primary who voters are still getting to know.
Pence is one of those prospective rivals, and he stands to gain from having a strong name recognition due to his position as vice president. Pence, who has been preparing for a potential 2024 White House run, will undoubtedly have a difficult time winning over Trump's most ardent supporters. Many of these people lost faith in the former vice president after he chose not to go beyond the bounds of his congressional authority and refuse to obstruct the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 victory.
Trump might also come up against DeSantis, who is widely regarded as a more accomplished version of Trump and has become a cultural conservative hero. Even some of the former president's advisors have told CNN that DeSantis made progress with significant Republican donors during his bid for reelection and amassed a ton of goodwill with GOP leaders by supporting federal and statewide candidates while running for office himself.
As the House Select Committee continues to look into Trump's role in the events of January 6, 2021 and Justice Department officials consider whether to press charges, Trump faces another obstacle in addition to his potential rivals.
The committee held public hearings throughout the summer and early fall featuring depositions from those in Trump's inner circle at the White House, including members of his family, that detailed his public and private efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election through a sustained pressure campaign on numerous local, state, and federal officials. Trump is currently fighting the committee in court after it subpoenaed him for testimony and documents in October.
But the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, which advisors said further empowered Trump's decision to pursue what he believes would be a triumphant political comeback, may be specifically linked to his desire to launch his campaign early. The former president took calls from allies the day after the search urging him to move up his 2024 deadline. He told members of the Republican Study Committee that evening that he had "made up his mind" to run for office. However, several of the same House Republicans eventually persuaded him to postpone his announcement until after the midterm elections.
Few of these representatives attended Trump's speech on Tuesday, opting to stay in Washington while the House Republicans held their leadership elections and the party continued to struggle with its defeats in the highly anticipated midterm elections.Instead, notable election skeptics including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a number of Trump's attorneys, and former and current staffers were present. Several members of the former president's family, including Eric and Lara Trump, his son Barron, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Donald Trump Jr., were also seen entering the ballroom before he and the former first lady Melania Trump did on Tuesday. He was noticeably missing his daughter Ivanka and his oldest son. Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, Madison Cawthorn, a departing North Carolina representative, Devin Nunes, a former congressman and the current CEO of Trump's Truth Social app, and Susie Wiles, his chief political adviser, were also present.
Getting ready for 2024
From the moment Trump left Washington in January 2021, lost and in shame, he started planning a comeback, spending the majority of his time putting together a political operation for this occasion. He continued the aggressive fundraising strategies that had become a hallmark of his 2020 campaign with help from numerous former advisers and aides, amassing a massive war chest in advance of the 2022 midterm elections, and diligently worked to elect steadfast allies in both Congress and state legislatures across the nation.
He kept a home base in Florida, but he also frequently flew around the nation for campaign rallies, giving him valuable face time with his supporters and with candidates he thought would make good allies in the US Senate and House.
Trump persisted in falsely claiming that the 2020 election was rigged in his favor throughout the entire process, engaging in far-fetched conspiracy theories about voter fraud and pressuring Republican leaders throughout the party's electoral apparatus to support measures that would restrict voting rights.
The gradual shift in the focus of Trump's speeches at rallies and public appearances earlier this fall toward issues like immigration, rising crime, and the economy pleased his advisers because they believe it will help him establish a strong contrast with Biden as he moves forward. The former president's allies have long said that he sees the 2024 election as a chance to reclaim what he feels is rightfully his: another four years in the White House.
However, there is no assurance that Trump will coast to a second non-consecutive term. In actuality, it may be pretty challenging.
History only provides one example of such a feat (President Grover Cleveland was defeated in 1888 after his first term and won reelection in 1892), and no impeached president has ever ran for office again.
Trump was first removed from office in 2019 on grounds of abuse of authority and obstruction of justice. He was then removed again in 2021 on grounds of inciting the riot at the US Capitol. Despite being exonerated by the Senate both times, 10 House Republicans joined Democrats to vote to impeach him the second time around. At his Senate trial, seven Republican senators voted in favor of convicting him.
A number of lawsuits and investigations have also been filed against Trump, including one by the New York state attorney general into the financials of his company, another by the Manhattan district attorney, one by the Georgia county attorney general into his attempts to have the state's election results overturned, and two by the Justice Department into his campaign's use of phony electors in swing states and his decision to bring sensitive information to Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has largely expressed interest in a future return to Washington through his actions since he departed that city. Trump defied convention by planning his comeback, while the majority of former presidents retire quietly until reappearing to support their parties during midterm elections or for the opening of their presidential libraries. Trump's Mar-a-Lago club has evolved into a new Republican hub and a base for his political machine despite being far from Washington.
He has hosted several fundraisers for candidates and committees with the help of a small number of paid staff members, and a revolving cast of congressional candidates and party leaders have passed through its opulent halls in an effort to win his support or win back his base. Trump has been able to forge close bonds with both party leaders and eccentric figures thanks to his busy schedule, including Rep.
Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose backing in a contentious primary may finally enable him to eliminate the competition. As the former president and his de facto chief of staff, longtime Florida GOP strategist Wiles, aim to maintain a lean operation similar to the early days of his 2016 presidential campaign, many of his aides who have been with him since he left the White House are anticipated to continue on as campaign hands. Wiles, Taylor Budowich, Chris LaCivita, Steven Cheung, Justin Caperole, and Brian Jack are some of the people that are most likely to be engaged.
Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who was heavily involved in his bid for reelection, and Brad Parscale, who managed a portion of his failed 2020 campaign, will not be involved in his 2024 operation.
time spent at work
Trump was criticized as president for a number of his decisions, most notably how he handled the Covid-19 outbreak, the largest public health disaster in nearly a century, even though his administration sped up the creation of vaccines to combat the unique coronavirus. Critics have criticized him for how he handled the 2017 Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico, the Charlottesville, Virginia, White supremacist event, where Heather Heyer was killed while accompanying a group of counterprotesters, and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
Trump implemented divisive hard-line immigration policies while in office, including one that separated migrant children from their families and another known as "Remain in Mexico," which the US Supreme Court ruled could be reversed by his successor in June. He also appointed hundreds of federal judges with strong conservative backgrounds. Additionally, he was successful in nominating three justices to the Supreme Court, whose rulings as the court's majority this year have pushed American society and legislation to the right on topics including abortion, weapons, religious freedom, and climate change.
In spite of sexual misconduct allegations that would typically have been enough to end a campaign, the former real estate mogul and reality TV star won his first election to office in 2016 by defeating a sizable field of more than a dozen GOP rivals in a nasty primary and then defeating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a contentious general election.
Trump was an impetuous president who ignored long-standing conventions and frequently announced changes to Cabinet members and policies on Twitter. (After the brawl at the US Capitol, he was eventually removed off the platform and later banned from Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as well.)
He promoted an "America First" foreign policy, pulling the US out of contentious agreements like the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord, both of which were criticized by many of America's top European allies.
A new development has been added to this article.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the potential Trump campaign participants. Brad Parscale won't be working on the 2024 project.
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