Donald Trump announces 2024 White House bid, saying ‘America’s comeback starts now’

Donald Trump has ended months of speculation by announcing he will run for President in 2024, setting the stage for a bruising Republican nomination battle.

Former US President Donald Trump announces his 2024 run for the White House, during a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump has declared his intention to run for President in 2024, his third tilt for the White House a little over a week since midterm elections in which Republicans and Mr Trump’s candidates performed worse than expected.

Declaring “America’s come back starts right now” and himself a “victim” Mr Trump, speaking in the gilded reception hall of his private resort in Mar-A-Lago on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEDT), said he would “fight like no one had ever fought before” to win the Republican nomination for president.

“This will not be my campaign, this will be our campaign …. I am running because I believe the world has not yet seen the true glory of what this nation can be … I didn’t need this, I had a very nice life,” Mr Trump said, speaking for well over an hour after news broke the former president had filed the necessary paperwork.

The announcement by the former president, while widely telegraphed, will put renewed focus on the growing field of Republican candidates, including potentially Florida governor Ron DeSantis, to make their own intentions known in coming weeks.

“Now we are a nation in decline, a failing nation, for millions of Americans the past two years under Joe Biden have been a time of pain, hardship anxiety and despair,” Mr Trump said, to periodic cheers from the packed audience of supporters.

“The American people will overwhelmingly reject national ruin and embrace our platform of national glory”.

In his trademark red tie Mr Trump strode up to the lectern in the Louis XIV style reception hall at Mar-A-Lago, the former president’s home in Florida, on Tuesday night, defying a welter of counsel that he should postpone or cancel the his anticipated announcement owing to the GOP’s poor performance in last week’s midterms.

People wait for the arrival of Donald Trump during an event at his Mar-a-Lago home on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

Republicans were on the brink of claiming 218 seats in the House of Representatives Tuesday night EST, the bare minimum required to have a majority in the 435-seat lower house of the US congress, falling far short of the ‘red wave’ pollsters and pundits had expected.

“Much criticism is being placed on the fact Republicans should have done better and much of this blame is correct,” Mr Trump said, addressing indirectly widespread criticism of his role and influence in the campaign.

Mike Huckabee, former Republican Arkansas governor, said Mr Trump’s speech was “unbeatable”.

“No one will be able to touch him, Democrat or Republicans … this was as brilliant speech the best I’ve heard him give in a long time,” he said on Fox News.

Mick Mulvaney, former acting chief of staff for Mr Trump in the final year of his presidency, ridiculed Mr Trump’s claim that 232 of his chosen midterm candidates had won and only 22 had lost.

“The losses included Senate races in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada, and New Hampshire. And governors in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Wins included dog catcher in Pahrump, Arizona,” he tweeted.

Mr Trump’s speech was also a strident defence of his presidency, dwelling on efforts to pursue energy independence and “drain the swamp” of Washington to fruitful meetings with world leaders and avoid nuclear war.

“Suffering is starting to take hold, they [voters] don’t feel it yet but they will very soon … I have no doubt that by 2024 it will sadly be much worse, and they will see much more clearly what is happening and the voting will be much different.”

Mr Trump also revealed some of this previous discussions with leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, who was in Bali for the G20 leaders meeting at the time with President Biden and Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese.

“I call him king. He said, ‘no, no, I’m not king.’ I said yes, you are the king — you’re president for life. It’s the same thing.”

Toward the end of his speech Mr Trump said he would support a term limit on members of congress, and push for same day voting and only paper ballots in US elections.

‘Better choices’

Trump’s once-loyal vice president, Mike Pence, who released a new book, “So Help Me God,” on Tuesday and is seen as a potential 2024 challenger — told ABC News this week that Trump’s behaviour on January 6, 2021 had been “reckless.”

But Pence declined to say directly whether Trump should be president again. “That’s up to the American people, but I think we’ll have better choices in the future,” he said.

For the moment, the hard-right DeSantis looks like the leading challenger to Trump in a Republican field that may include Pence, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and ex-South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.

The 44-year-old DeSantis, dubbed “Ron DeSanctimonious” by Trump, 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.”

Without naming Trump, he also suggested a Republican ticket headed by the former president would have trouble attracting independent voters “even with Biden in the White House and the failures that we’re seeing.”

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.

Trump faces battle with Republican rivals

A shock and awe 2024 presidential announcement so early in the process – Republican primaries don’t begin until February 2024 – could scare off some of Mr Trump’s potential rivals, a group that appears to be swelling by the day as potential rivals sniff blood.

A presidential bid could also, at least in Mr Trump’s mind, slow down or complicate the slew of ongoing federal and state investigations into Mr Trump’s tax and business affairs, his alleged removal of top-secret documents from the White House, and his potential involvement in trying to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6th Capitol Hill riots.

It would also trigger campaign finance laws that will constrain how he can raise and spend political donations.

Whatever his current troubles, Mr Trump remains the 800-pound gorilla in the GOP, with huge grassroots support among party’s base, including among prominent Republicans.

Elise Stefanik, the third highest ranking Republican in the lower house and a veteran Trump supporter, said on Friday she would “proudly” endorse him for 2024.

“It is time for Republicans to unite around the most popular Republican in America who has a proven track record of conservative governance,” she said in a statement.

In US history only Grover Cleveland, in 1892, has won a second, non-consecutive term as president.

But he was a Democrat, so Mr Trump could well make history again.

Additional reporting: AFP