Culture
16 Nov 22

Donald Trump announces 2024 White House bid amid criminal investigations

“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States," Trump said. The former president, who tried to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election, previously inspired a deadly riot at the Capitol in a desperate attempt to keep himself in power.

Donald Trump, former US President, has announced his 2024 presidential bid.

Stood on stage before a backdrop of American flags, his announcement was met with sustained cheering from a Republican crowd. The moment was captured across a sea of phones at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. It was only in August that this same estate was searched by the FBI for classified documents.

Trump - renowned for his controversies - was impeached twice, and the accused instigator of a riot on the Capitol following his unsuccessful re-election. The 76-year-old has declared the US “in a horrible state", adding that, "we are in grave trouble” at his speech last night. Trump took some creative licence when describing his country under Biden in his speech, describing “cesspool cities” and “blood-soaked streets” as he vowed to "Make America great again" (again).

He also downplayed climate breakdown, falsely stating that the oceans have only risen by one-eighth in 100 years, and made transphobic statements.

We've come to the transphobia part of Trump's speech pic.twitter.com/BEN5prWeGu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 16, 2022

“The decline of America is being forced upon us by Biden and the radical left lunatics who are running this country into the ground," he stated.

Trump claimed Biden was leading the world to the brink of nuclear war over the conflict in Ukraine, which, he claimed never would have happened if he was in the White House.

“Even just today a missile sent in, probably by Russia, to Poland," he stated, unproven. Fact checkers today declared that the missile was "unlikely" to have been launched by Russia and was probably a Ukraine weapon that exploded. "The people are going absolutely wild and crazy and they’re not happy. They’re very, very angry."

In an address that lasted just over an hour, Trump said when he was in the White House “everybody was doing great, everyone was thriving like never before. Two years ago we were a great nation and soon we will be a great nation again.”

Jonathan Karl reports people were trying to leave Trump’s “low energy” presidential announcement speech, but staff was blocking them. pic.twitter.com/VHZ9PPI2HB

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) November 16, 2022

This is the former president’s third attempt to run, following his defeat in 2020.

This time, Trump will be facing the campaign without his daughter Ivanka– a key campaigner in his original run back in 2016, who has said after the announcement that she would not be a part of this campaign. "I love my father very much. This time around, I am choosing to prioritise my children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics." The statement follows her testimony before the panel investigating the Capitol attack back in April.

The timing of Trump's announcement is questionable considering the recent Republican losses of this year’s midterm elections, with the Senate remaining in Democratic power, and the Republicans barely clinging to a majority in the House. Trump has been largely blamed for these recent losses.

Trump is now facing criticism from some of his own allies who say it is time for Republicans to look to the future, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis emerging as an early favourite White House contender.

The former president remains deeply popular with the GOP base, even as DeSantis and other Republicans - including former vice president Mike Pence - are taking increasingly public steps toward campaigns of their own, raising the prospect that Trump will have to navigate a competitive GOP primary.

Trump is also launching his candidacy amid a series of escalating criminal investigations, including several that could lead to indictments.

They include the probe into dozens of documents with classified markings that were seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago and ongoing state and federal inquiries into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.