PALM BEACH, United States — Former US
president
Donald Trump launched into the 2024 White House race on Tuesday,
setting the stage for a bruising Republican nomination battle after a poor
midterm election showing by his hand-picked candidates weakened his grip on the
party.
اضافة اعلان
“America’s comeback starts right now,” the
76-year-old former president told hundreds of supporters gathered in an ornate
American flag-draped ballroom at his palatial Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
“In order to make America great and glorious again,
I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump
said, minutes after filing the official paperwork for his third presidential
run.
Trump’s unusually early entry into the race is being
seen in Washington as an attempt to get the jump on other Republicans seeking
to be party flag-bearer — and to stave off potential criminal charges.
Trump, who was impeached for seeking political dirt
on Biden from Ukraine and again after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol
by his supporters, launches his new bid with several potential handicaps.
He is the target of multiple investigations into his
conduct before, during and after his first term as president — which could
ultimately result in his disqualification.
These include allegations of fraud by his family
business, his role in the attack on the
Capitol, his attempt to overturn the
2020 election, and his stashing of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Meanwhile Trump’s Republicans are licking their
wounds after disappointing midterms, widely blamed on the underperformance of
Trump-anointed candidates, and some are openly asking whether Trump — with his
divisive politics and mess of legal woes — is the right person to carry the
party colors next time around.
2024 challengers
Several possible 2024
primary rivals are circling, chief among them the governor of Florida Ron
DeSantis, who bucked the tide and won a resounding reelection victory on
November 8.
For the moment, the DeSantis looks like the leading
challenger to Trump in a Republican field that may include former vice
president Mike Pence, Texas Senator
Ted Cruz, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin,
former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and ex-South Carolina governor Nikki
Haley.
DeSantis had a ready reply Tuesday when asked about
the former president’s attacks on him, urging “people to go check out the
scoreboard from last Tuesday night”.
By throwing his hat in the ring, Trump is seeking to
become just the second American president to serve non-consecutive terms —
Grover Cleveland was elected in 1884, lost in 1888, and won again in 1892.
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