Former U.S. President Trump formally declared his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 on the evening of November 15th. Trump aims to become the second-ever commander-in-chief to be elected in nonconsecutive terms. “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 at Mar-a-Lago, in front of his waterfront estate in Florida.
Unlike his last run against President Biden, Trump is expected to face significant competition in 2024 for the Republican nomination. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former vice president, Mike Pence, and former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo have all shown interest in running against Trump in 2024. President Biden, who will finish his four-year term in 2024 is expected to run again but has not made a public announcement.
Governor DeSantis is considered by many to be the most likely candidate to beat Trump for the Republican candidacy in 2024. DeSantis won by a landslide for his second term as Florida governor in the midterm elections. His win of nearly 20 points over his Democrat opponent stoked further evidence for his possible run for president in two years.
Before his announcement for candidacy for president, Trump warned DeSantis against running for president, stating that DeSantis would damage the Republican Party. “I don’t know if he is running. I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really believe he could hurt himself badly,” Trump said, “I don’t think it would be good for the party.” Trump also threatened to release damaging information about DeSantis if he entered the race, adding that he knew “things about [DeSantis] that won’t be very flattering.”
During his announcement, Trump delivered a speech filled with countless claims about his four years as President, touching on his first-term accomplishments compared to the Biden administration’s policies and the country’s current economic state. Trump emphasized that “this will not be my campaign, this will be our campaign all together,” and that the Republican party cannot afford to nominate “a politician or conventional candidate” if it wants to win the White House back.
To Trump’s advantage, President Biden’s approval ratings have taken a hit following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Gas prices, inflation, and variants of the coronavirus pandemic have all continued to rise under the Biden Administration. “Joe Biden is the face of left-wing failure and Washington corruption,” Trump said. “I will ensure that Joe Biden does not receive four more years. … Our country could not take that.”
Following the election controversy in 2020, Trump’s newfound solution to the voting system is “to eliminate cheating,” which he claimed to achieve by creating new voter identification rules that limited voting to just Election day and to only paper ballots. After Biden’s election was upheld, Trump failed to follow the standard peaceful transfer of power, and instead continued on with his fraud claims, which eventually lead to the deadly attacks in the capitol.
These fraud claims continued among the Trump-endorsed candidates during the midterm elections, in which the Republican party performed underwhelmingly. Since the midterms, Trump had received blame for elevating flawed candidates who spent too much time protesting the past election fraud claims. In response, Trump blamed the results on voters failing to realize “the total effect of the suffering” that the last two years of Democratic control had caused.
“I have no doubt that by 2024, it will sadly be much worse and they will see clearly what has happened and is happening to our country – and the voting will be much different,” Trump claimed.
By Kevin Niu
Leave a Reply