Tuesday night, former U.S. President Donald Trump announced he will run for president in 2024 seeking the Republican nomination
Former U.S. President Donald Trump declares that he will once again run for U.S. president in the 2024 U.S. presidential election during an event at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. November 15, 2022.
“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump told a crowd gathered at Mar-a-Lago, his waterfront estate in Florida, where his campaign will be headquartered.
Throughout the hour-long speech, Trump made it obvious that he wants his campaign to be seen by Republicans as a sacrificial undertaking.
“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 at one point, describing the legal and emotional toll his presidency and the post-presidential period has taken on his family members.
As Trump spoke to a roomful of Republicans who expect him to face primary challengers in the coming months, he also claimed the party cannot afford to nominate “a politician or conventional candidate” if it wants to win back the White House.
“This will not be my campaign, this will be our campaign all together,” Trump said.
Surrounded by allies, advisers, and conservative influencers, Trump produced a rather calm speech, Trump sought to arouse sentimentality for his time in office, frequently contrasting his first-term accomplishments with the Biden administration’s policies and the current economic climate. However, those perceived achievements – from strict immigration actions to corporate tax cuts and religious freedom initiatives – stay extremely polarizing to this day.
Trump’s long-awaited campaign comes as he tries to reclaim the spotlight following the GOP’s underwhelming midterm elections performance – including the losses of several Trump-endorsed election deniers – and the subsequent blame game that has unfolded since Election Day.
Republicans failed to gain a Senate majority, came up short in their efforts to fill several statewide seats, and have yet to secure a House majority, with only 215 races called in their favor so far out of the 218 needed, developments that have forced Trump and other party leaders into a defensive posture as they face reproval from within their ranks.
Trump’s paperwork establishing his candidacy landed with the Federal Election Committee shortly before he delivered his announcement at Mar-a-Lago.
He advocated for the use of paper ballots and compared America’s election system to that of “third world countries,” Trump also tried at times to broaden his grievances – bemoaning the “massive corruption” and “entrenched interests” that in his view have consumed Washington.
Many of Trump’s top advisers have expressed concern that his obsession with promoting conspiracies about the last presidential election would make it harder for him to win a national election in 2024.
Why Will It Be Harder?
A few factors may make it harder for Mr. Trump to win easily this time. His constant promises of infrastructure investment never came to a realization, COVID-19 handling was a huge failure that saw America with the highest number of deaths in the world, the ominous shadow of the 6 January 2021, attack at the US Capitol with images of supporters waving Trump banners amid the teargas as they ransacked the Capitol haunts Americans. It resulted in ten deaths and insecurity of a government that could provoke violence, a white supremacy movement got activated under him, which is even repulsive to a lot of Christians.
If Donald Trump wants the nomination in 2024, he may once again have to go through a Florida governor. The Florida governor could appear as the agreement pick among the party faithful not keen to give Mr Trump another shot.
On the eve of Mr Trump’s presidential announcement, a conservative group gave a series of polls that showed Mr Trump trailing Ron DeSantis in a head-to-head contest by double-digits among Republican voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Ron DeSantis win with an overwhelming re-election victory that suggests he is in tune with his party’s core supporters. BBC News says, “While he has yet to be tested on the national stage, his political star is ascending.”
It’s unclear if Mr DeSantis will run, otherwise, what other options are there? Who will join the Republican presidential race for 2024 at this point?