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Former US President, Donald Trump ended months of speculation and launched his bid to retake the White House in 2024 on Tuesday, an early attempt to clear the GOP primary field ahead of a potential rematch against Joe Biden.
“Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens, America’s comeback starts right now,” Mr. Trump, told hundreds of cheering supporters who gathered in the ornate ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago resort for the official announcement.
“In order to make America great and glorious again I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”
Moments before his remarks, Mr. Trump filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission confirming his candidacy.
“I will ensure that Joe Biden does not receive four more years,” he added later in his remarks. “Our country could not take that. And I say that not in laughter, I say that in tears. Our country could not take four more years. They can only take so much.”
Since Trump left office, polls have indicated his standing among Republicans has declined, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis seen as another top contender for the nomination.
The former president made a theatrical entrance after the sound system blasted the anthem “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the musical Les Miserables.
“Our enemies are speaking of us with scorn and laughter and derision … People are going absolutely wild and crazy. They are not happy. They are very, very angry,” Trump said.
“Now we have a president who falls asleep at global conferences, was held in contempt by the British parliament over Afghanistan … and he is leading us to the brink of nuclear war, a concept unimaginable just two short years ago.”
Trump vowed that if he’s elected to a second non-consecutive term, “we will be a great nation again.”
“The decline of America is being forced upon us by Biden and the radical left lunatics running our government right into the ground. This decline is not a fate we must accept,” he said.
Trump brushed off the unexpectedly poor showing by Republicans in last week’s midterm elections, in which Democrats retained the Senate and Republicans were on track to gain the House by a hair. “Nancy Pelosi has been fired,” Trump said. “I said, ‘If you win by two seats, be happy.’”
In a swipe at his would-be competitors, Trump said that the job of “taking on the most corrupt forces and entrenched interests imaginable” was “not a task for a politician or a conventional candidate. This is a task for a great movement.”
He also lauded his own policies during his four years in office and said he was running on a “national greatness agenda” while slamming Biden for his actions as well as his frequent gaffes.
Biden says he also plans to run again in 2024 despite turning 80 on Nov. 20.
Trump offered a comprehensive policy platform in his 69-minute speech, though some members of his roughly 1,000-strong audience began speaking among themselves and ignoring his words toward the end.
“Unlike Biden possibly getting us into World War III, which can seriously happen, I will keep America out of foolish and unnecessary foreign wars, just as I did for four straight years,” Trump said.
“The world was at peace,” Trump went on, reflecting on when he left office in 2021. “America was prospering, and our country was on track for an amazing future. Because I made big promises to the American people and unlike other presidents, I kept my promises.”
On domestic policy, Trump won cheers by pledging that “we will not let men participate in women’s sports” in reference to transgender athletes and said he would call for Congress to approve the death penalty for drug dealers.
“We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts,” Trump said, despite his record of releasing from prison many drug dealers including springing on his final day in office seven men jailed for life for marijuana dealing, two of whom were given that penalty as a consequence of Biden’s 1994 crime law.
Trump also vowed to double down on protectionism and ensure “low taxes, low regulations and fair trade.”
He also asserted that he would bring down inflation currently at its highest sustained rate since the early 1980s to around 1%, versus 7.7% currently, and said he would work to return supply chains and manufacturing from China.
“Economic security is national security,” Trump said. “Good luck getting a turkey for Thanksgiving. Number one, you won’t get it. And if you do, you’re going to pay three or four times more.”
The ex-president said he also would “insist” that local officials accept federal intervention to quell rising violent crime because “people are being shot and killed at random like you’ve never seen before” and cities are becoming “cesspools of blood.”
Trump said he would finish his long-promised US-Mexico border wall and work to deport “illegal immigrant criminals” and take aim at “festering rot” in Washington by pushing a constitutional amendment imposing congressional term limits, along with a lifetime ban on lobbying by former lawmakers and Cabinet members and new rules restricting congressional stock trades.
Guests at the event included staffers who will work on Trump’s campaign, among them Susie Wiles, a former DeSantis aide, senior communications adviser Steven Cheung, longtime Trump associate Boris Epshteyn and Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich.
Trump’s sons Eric and Barron and son-in-law Jared Kushner attended while Donald Trump Jr., who was on a hunting trip, was unable to make the event due to a flight issue. Kushner’s wife Ivanka Trump, a former unpaid West Wing adviser, was not in attendance and later issued a statement saying she wanted no part of her father’s latest campaign.
“This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family,” the eldest Trump daughter said in a statement. “I do not plan to be involved in politics. While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena.”
At least one member of Congress, outgoing Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), was present — after one of the few expected lawmakers, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) gave the event a miss due to a scheduling conflict with House GOP leadership votes.
A tranche of Trump administration alums also attended, among them former White House budget director Russ Vought, former acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker and former White House adviser Seb Gorka.
If Trump wins in 2024, Vought told The Post, “From day one he will know how to put his hand in the glove and wield as much power within the federal government as possible and I think he will have a staff and an administration of like-minded individuals.”
“I think it’s going to be a scrappy campaign that has a lot of the feel of the 2016 campaign,” Vought added. “He has got fire in the belly. He’s got unfinished business.”
Whitaker told The Post that “there’s no reason to expect that he will be unopposed for the Republican nomination, but at the same time I’m really excited … this is going to be one of those seasons to not miss.”
“I think the early Trump years were marked by maybe some staff that wasn’t up to the challenge and he kept trying to find the right people and put them in the right spots,” Whitaker said. “I think he finally hit his stride as he headed from ’19 to ’20. I think he’s going to have some great people identified and I think he’s going to be in a position from day one to drive the thing forward.”
The event occurred as Trump takes blame for his intervention in the midterm elections — with critics saying his primary-campaign endorsements of candidates like Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate contest cost the GOP winnable races.
“Much criticism is being placed on the fact that the Republican Party should have done better and frankly, much of this blame is correct,” Trump said Tuesday night, before adding: “I do want to point out that in the midterms; my endorsement success rate was 232 wins and only 22 losses. You don’t hear that from the media.”
However, the former president did not note that many of his victories were for endorsements of candidates in safe House seats, where his support was not necessary to ensure Republican wins.
