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Former president Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he will seek the presidency again in 2024, even as a rising number of Republicans are urging the party to look elsewhere in light of their 2022 midterm debacle.
“I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump said during an announcement speech at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Fla.
Minutes before his scheduled 9 p.m. announcement from Mar-a-Lago, Trump filed a paperwork with the Federal Election Commission saying he was running for president in 2024, and setting up a fundraising account.
“America’s comeback starts right now,” Trump said during his speech at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Fla.
Trump had hoped to use a ceremony at his Mar-a-Lago home to seize credit for Republican election victories; but the GOP’s failure to take the Senate and struggles in House races scotched that plan and forced Trump onto the political defensive.
Many Republicans blamed Trump and Trump-like candidates for the GOP’s poor showing in the 2022 midterm elections and noted that the party as led by the businessman also fared badly in the elections of 2018 and 2020.
“Trump’s cost us the last three elections, and I don’t want to see it happen a fourth time,” Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan told CNN, an example of some of the most pointed criticism from Republicans since Trump’s first run for the presidency in 2015-16.
Many Republicans looking for a new leader are turning to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who defied anti-Republican trends by winning reelection with more than 59% of the vote. DeSantis is so popular that Trump has already started attacking him.
In last week’s midterm elections, Republicans failed to win control of the Senate – even though they only needed a net gain of one seat – and struggled in a number of U.S. House and state office races. The GOP is still on track to win control of the House, but probably by less than a half-dozen seats – a crushing disappointment for party leaders who had envisioned a “red wave” and blamed Trump for a bare trickle.
“Trump Is the Republican Party’s Biggest Loser,” said a headline in the normally supportive Wall Street Journal editorial page.Biden reacts to Trump speech
At the G-20 summit of world leaders in Indonesia, a reporter asked President Joe Biden and President Emmanuel Macron of France if they had any reactions to a Trump 2024 presidential run.
According to a White House pool report, the president responded “not really.”
Macron, the pool report noted, stayed silent and did not react.
— Luciana LopezIvanka Trump: I will spend time with my family, not the 2024 campaign
One notable absence from Trump’s nascent 2024 campaign: Ivanka Trump.
The former first daughter issued a statement saying “I love my father very much,” and added: “This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics.”
Ivanka Trump said “I will always love and support my father,” but “going forward I will do so outside the political arena.”
“I am grateful to have had the honor of serving the American people and I will always be proud of many of our Administration’s accomplishment,” she said.
– David JacksonA second Trump administration would be limited to one term, says U.S. Constitution
Whether Donald Trump’s White House comeback succeeds, including winning the Republican nomination, is for voters to decide.
The only thing that’s certain is a second Trump presidency would be limited to one term. That much has already been decided by the U.S. Constitution.
The 22nd Amendment states it pretty clearly: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”
— Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post
Read the whole story here: A second Trump administration would be limited to one term, says U.S. ConstitutionTrump targets ‘establishment’ with long-shot policy proposals
The new 2024 candidate salted his speech with some policy proposals – most of them long shots aimed at what the former president and now three-time presidential candidate calls the “Washington establishment.”
Trump called for a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress, a “permanent ban” on taxpayer funding of campaigns, and a ban on lobbying by former lawmakers.
Members of both parties are likely to balk at these plans; term limits have been a non-starter with Congress for decades.
Trump also repeated his call to change elections in order to attack early voting and mail-in voting, both of which have gone against him in recent elections. He called for one-day voting with paper ballots.
States run elections.
– David JacksonTrump proposes changes to election process
Trump announced that he would like to make changes to how elections are run, such as requiring all votes to take place on paper ballots and to have all votes counted on election night.
Presidential elections are currently decentralized and administered at the state level.
— Erin MansfieldFar-right politicians line up to support Trump
Politicians affiliated with the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus and its campaign arm have begun to announce their support for four more years of President Donald Trump.
“THIS IS HISTORIC,” tweeted Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, Trump’s former White House physician who was tapped to run the Department of Veterans Affairs but later withdrew.
“We will Make America Great Again!” tweeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia.
“I will do everything I can to deliver Ohio for President Trump once again,” tweeted Max Miller, a Republican Congressman-elect from Ohio.
— Erin MansfieldBiden and the Democrats are already raising money off of Trump’s announcement
President Joe Biden and the Democrats didn’t waste any time raising money off of Trump’s announcement – they emailed potential donors while the former president was still speaking.
“He will fail,” said the solicitation signed by Biden, and “people like you stepping up will be a big part of how it’s done.”
Biden went on to tout Democratic wins in the midterm elections.
“And if you step up now,” the email said, “our party will defeat MAGA Republicans again in 2024.”
– David JacksonWhy Trump’s decision to run for president won’t change his legal woes
Donald Trump’s decision to run for president in 2024 has once again thrust to the fore fundamental questions about how prosecutors would handle the panoply of investigations still smoldering from his previous stint in the White House.
