Donald Trump still claims 2020 presidential election was stolen, but vows to fight in 2024

The former president repeats his assertion that the 2020 election was fraudulent as he goes on the campaign trail for the first time this year.

Donald Trump is yet to officially confirm he is running for president in 2024. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump repeated his assertion that the 2020 election was fraudulent as he went on the campaign trail for the first time this year, telling an adoring crowd their country was in peril under President Biden’s leadership.

At a “Save America” rally in Florence, near Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday evening, a freewheeling Trump riffed on favourite themes including the alleged misdeeds of the “fake news” media, “extremist” Democrats and a “big tech” industry biased against Republicans.

He said he was innocent of all blame for the January 6 riots at the US Capitol and pointed the finger instead at police and Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, for failing to handle his campaign event, which spilt over into violence.

While Trump is yet to officially confirm he is running for president in 2024, he told the crowd: “In 2024 we are going to take back the White House. We’re going to stage a comeback the likes of which nobody has ever seen.”

Trump, 75, criticised Biden’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, immigration at the southern border and the rise in violent crime.

“In less than one year, Joe Biden and the radical Democrats have brought our country to the brink of ruin,” Trump said, adding that the US was “a laughing stock all over the world”.

The former president repeated his claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, though again failed to provide evidence. He narrowly lost Arizona to Biden but told the crowd a mass fraud had taken place in the state.

Trump said postal voting should be banned in most cases and that America should return to paper ballots, because electronic systems were open to manipulation.

Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap, Trump said the House committee investigating the January 6 unrest was a “whitewash”, and shared his support for alleged rioters. “These people are living in hell,” Trump said, to cheers from the audience. “Let them fight, let them see their lawyers. Let them go out. They are being hounded like you hound the worst animal. What’s going on is horrible.”

Trump told the crowd postal voting should be banned in most cases and that America should return to paper ballots

Trump predicted that a Republican “great red wave” would sweep across America at November’s mid-term elections and force the Democratic “Marxist monstrosities” out of office.

The crowd cheered as Trump promised to provide more funding for the police, said he would ban “critical race theory” in schools, and mocked transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sport. He also promised to make China pay trillions of dollars for its alleged role in the pandemic.

Cynthia Aeschlimann, 63, had driven more than 700 miles from her home in Ogden, Utah, to attend the rally. A believer in the QAnon conspiracy theory that America is controlled by Satan-worshipping paedophiles, she agreed Biden stole the election. “Trump’s got to come back soon,” she said.

The Times