FORMER US president Donald Trump has announced that he is seeking the republican nomination to return to the office in 2024.
Trump announced he intention to run again at his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, last night in front of crowds with American flags and MAGA banners.
Vowing to defeat Joe Biden in 2024, he declared: “America’s golden age is just ahead.”
"In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for President of the United States," Trump said.
"Thank you, all of you. Thank you," he said to the cheering crowd.
"So many incredible friends and family here tonight; it's such a beautiful thing," he continued.
"Some people say, 'How do you speak before so many people all the time?' – when there's love in the room, it's really easy, if you want to know the truth, it really is. You ought to try it sometime!"
Trump spoke a week after midterm elections in which his Republican party did not make expected gains, losing the Senate and seeming on course for only a narrow majority in the US House.
In his remarks, Trump took credit for Republicans’ performance victory in the House, even though they are poised to capture a far narrower majority than anticipated.
“Nancy Pelosi has been fired. Isn’t that nice?” he said.
"Our country is in a horrible state. We're in grave trouble. This is not a task for a politician or a conventional candidate – this is a task for a great movement that embodies the courage, confidence and the spirit of the American people," he continued.
"This is a movement. This is not for any one individual. This is a job for tens of millions of proud people working together from all across the land, from all walks of life; young and old, black and white, Hispanic and Asian, many of whom we have brought together for the very, very first time.
"If you look at the numbers, if you look at what's happened with Hispanic, with African-American, with Asian – this is a party that has become much bigger, much stronger, much more powerful, can do much more good for our country."
Trump’s announcement also coincided on Tuesday with the release of Mike Pence’s memoir, So Help Me God, in which the ex-president’s once-faithful lieutenant criticizes him for his conduct on 6 January 2021.
The former vice-president is also maneuvering toward a possible 2024 run despite falling out of favor with the Maga base.
Without acknowledging his 2020 defeat, Trump insisted that beating Biden in 2024 would be much easier because “everybody sees what a bad job has been done.”
He called Biden the “face of left-wing failure and government corruption” and accused him of worsening inflation and “surrendering” America’s energy independence. He also slammed the administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan as “the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country”.
In 2020, Biden received 7 million more votes than Trump and received 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232.
Only one president, Grover Cleveland, has served two non-consecutive terms in 1884 and 1892.
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