American dream is back: Trump

Amid a red sea of supporters Donald Trump launched his 2020 election campaign.

Orlando: Amid a surging red sea of supporters chanting “four more years”, Donald Trump yesterday launched his 2020 election campaign by declaring “the American dream is back”.

At a rally of 20,000 fans in ­Orlando, Florida, attended by first lady Melania Trump, Mr Trump’s four adult children and Vice-President Mike Pence, the US President said he had given power back to the American people.

“Tonight I stand before you to officially launch my campaign for a second term,” he said to cheers.

Donald Trump reacts to the crowd after speaking during his re-election kick-off rally in Orlando. Picture: AP.

“We have probably the greatest economy in the history of this country. Our future has never looked brighter or sharper. The American dream is back, and it’s bigger and stronger than ever before.”

He spoke of promises made and promises kept, reeling off a list of achievements in his first two years in office.

In particular he spoke of the booming economy, saying how six million jobs had been created under his watch while unemployment had fallen to a 50-year low. “We are keeping our promises to the American people,” he said.

The crowd, many of them wearing Make America Great Again caps and holding up Trump 2020 signs, cheered as the President spoke, booed at the mention of the media and the Democrats, and chanted “USA, USA”.

In a sometimes dark speech, Mr Trump savaged the inquiry by Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Democrats investigating him.

“We went through the greatest political witch-hunt in our history … for the last 2½ years we have been under siege,” he said. “No president should ever have to go through this again, it is so bad for our great country.”

Mr Trump’s son Donald Jr arrives with his new girlfriend, former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle. Picture: AFP

He accused the Democrats of spending the past two years “trying to shred our constitution and rip your country apart”.

The rally formally kicks off a 16- month campaign by Mr Trump to secure a second term at a time when the economy is strong but his approval ratings are trapped in the low 40s. It also comes ahead of the first debates next week ­between 20 of 23 Democrats vying to win their party’s nomination to challenge Mr Trump in next ­November’s election.

It comes as internal party polling shows Mr Trump trailing the Democrat frontrunner and former vice-president Joe Biden by double digits in the key swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Mr Trump did not mention Mr Biden once in his speech.

However, he described the Democrats as “more radical, more dangerous and more unhinged than at any point in the history of our country”. Democrats now had a policy of “open borders” which was “morally reprehensible” at a time when the country was under siege from illegal migrants. He slammed their calls for universal healthcare, ­declaring “America will never be a socialist country”.

Mr Trump renewed his attack on the “Washington swamp” and claimed to be moving power from the capital back to ordinary Americans. “We did not merely transfer power from one party to another, but we transferred power back to you,” he said.

He said his trade policies, which included withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and redrawing a new free-trade deal with Canada and Mexico, had helped to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US. On the trade dispute with China, he would not accept a second-rate deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “We are going to have a fair deal or were not going to have a deal at all,” he said. “We are finally putting American first.’

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia