Following a dismal midterm election performance by his hand-picked candidates, Donald Trump announced his third bid for the White House on Tuesday night, securing the ground for a brutal Republican primary fight.
Trump formally began his presidential campaign in 2024 by submitting paperwork to the Federal Election Commission in which he declared himself a contender and set up a new campaign organization.
“America’s comeback starts right now,” the 76-year-old former US President told hundreds of supporters gathered in an ornate American flag-draped ballroom at his palatial Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
“The voting will be much different. Are you getting ready?” Trump said.
“This will not be my campaign. This will be our campaign all together,” he said to the cheering crowd.
According to Agence France-Presse, Trump’s unusually early entry into the contest for the White House is being viewed in Washington as an effort to obtain an edge over other Republicans aspiring to lead the party in 2024 – as well as to avoid potential criminal charges.
After disappointing midterm results that were largely attributed to the underperformance of Trump-backed candidates, Republicans are licking their wounds. Some are openly doubting whether Trump, with his divisive political style and tangle of legal issues, is the right candidate to represent their party moving forward.
The governor of Florida Ron DeSantis, who defied the odds and won a stunning victory on November 8, is the most prominent of the potential 2024 primary competitors.
Trump, who was twice impeached by the House of Representatives before losing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, begins his most recent campaign for the White House with a number of possible disadvantages.
His actions before, during, and after his first tenure as president are the subject of numerous investigations that could ultimately lead to his disqualification.
Among them are claims that his family business committed fraud, his participation in the assault on the US Capitol last year, his attempt to rig the 2020 elections, and his storage of sensitive information at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has now officially confirmed his candidacy, which means that Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, would be required to appoint a special counsel to carry out the numerous investigations into the former president that the Department of Justice has already begun.
Source: punch